With A Jagged Edge
by Piccolo's Love Slave
Summary: A strange old house has appeared near Capsule Corp. No one has ever seen it before. There is something foul about it. Before they can find out any more, something horrific happens. This story includes one original character. She may be a bit Mary Sueish.
1. Tayven

__

Don't ask me where this story is going or where it will eventually end up because even I don't know that! I am basically just winging it so to speak. So your guess is as good as mine. I suppose it depends on where, exactly, the characters **want **to end up. Yeah, I know, that's a very lame excuse...but oh well! 

Oh and before I forget; Dragonball Z is (c) Akira Toriyama and all that good stuff. Tayven, however, is ALLL mine... 

Tayven: *Glares* 

~Ami 

Her name was Tayven. She knew it was a weird name. She also didn't give a rat's ass. It was the only name she had and she was damn proud of it. At least, that was what she told herself. Running her thin fingers through her shoulder-length midnight locks, Tayven glared at the computer screen for the uptenth time through narrowed dark eyes. She'd never finish it! Growling, she shoved back the chair and began to pace the small area around her dingy apartment, chewing on the ends of her hair as she did so. 

Dressed in a loose-fitting pair of tan cargo pants, a white wifebeater and graying tennis shoes that had seen better days, Tayven paused to look out the window at the urban senery below her. She lived in Satan City's most dilapidated district. All around her she saw various forms of suffering, from poverty to disease ridden hookers slinging their wares on the block kitty-corner from the run-down red-brick building which housed her little abode. 

She wanted more than anything to get the hell out of here. It was a foolish dream, she knew, as she backed from the window, (it was broken so refused to close all the way, duct tape and plastic keeping the cold air out unsucessfully in the winter), turned to walk the three feet or so to the small kitchen and began to fix herself something to eat. 

Staring down into her froot loops a few minutes later, Tayven sat cross-legged on the floor, her only peice of furniture being the sofa with the springs loose she used as bed up against the wall next to her, on the floor with her back braced against said sofa holding the bowl in her lap. 

She was thankful to at least have her crappy Apple computer. She'd gotten from a garage sale a few months back. The man let her have it for less than fifty dollars. Money she'd saved up pan-handling the streets during the day. It was her most prized possesion. Before she had aquired it, she'd done all her writing on paper, mostly napkins and the like. It felt good to be able to type out her stories. Even if she couldn't print them out or save them to disk considering how obsolete her console was she wasn't even sure they made floppies for it anymore. 

She's give anything to get her hands on one of the new models that had recently came out. One put out by Capsule Corp. Standing, Tayven yawned and turned back towards the kitchen with her now-empty bowl of cereal in one hand. The milk had tasted a bit funny. Probably need to have the landlord come and take a look at the fridge, she thought. Suddenly, before she could do anything, something large crashed, well, actually it looked like it was thrown, through her window, knocking her into the wall and sending the bowl flying out of her hands. 

"What the...?!" She cried, trying to push the weight off of her, she heard her bowl crash somewhere behind her, "Damn it! That was my last bowl! Get off of me!" 

She'd broken all her other bowls at one time or another after becoming too angry or frustrated and throwing them against the wall in a tantrum. She had a problem of acting first and regretting later. Her temper, she assumed it was due to her irish ancestory, flared up almost with a regularity that would make fiber-eaters jealous. The being who had landed so unceremoniously upon her rolled to the side and stood up. He shook himself off and glanced at her. She saw that he looked bruised, battered, the orange gi he wore was tattered, hanging off his toned, well-shaped body like rags. Holding a hand out to her, he offered to help her to her feet. 

Tayven sneered at him and ignored him, picking herself up and dusting off her pants. Just as she was about to ask him what the hell was going on, he shoved her aside roughly as a barrage of blinding explosions crashed through the walls of her apartment, coming from the now-shattered-beyond-repair window. 

"Sorry!" He said, jumping up and taking off through the gaping hole in her wall. Tayven, panting, looked around in horror. Her apartment was totaled. There wasn't any other way of saying it. Huge craters where walls should have been showed her the hallway and gave her a view into neighboring apartments. She waved, annoyed, to Mr. Timmons as he crouched behind his rocking chair holding a baseball bat in one hand. 

Standing there, in the middle of her ruined home, Tayven felt the familar heat rising to her cheeks that always came when she lost her temper. Climbing through the hole in the wall, she stalked over to the old man, jerked his bat from his startled grip and, in a rage, began to use it on the cracked and falling walls of the building, screaming profanities as she did so. 

Mr. Timmons, aware as the rest of the building of #222's fits of temper, backed away until the shadows hid him from view, hoping she'd calm down and realize what she was doing. Tayven, however, was immune to anything save the need to break something, anything, and make something hurt and feel her anger. She screamed; "It's not fucking fair! What did I do to deserve this!?" She glanced at her computer, or, what was left of it and went livid all over again. 

Panting, an hour later, Tayven sank to her knees, the redness about her cheeks looked blotchy, still holding the baseball bat. She'd done far more damage to the area around and within her apartment than the stranger and his attackers had done earlier. But she didn't care. In her heart, she always knew this day would come. She could never keep herself in check. Always she ended up ruining things. 

It was the reason she wasn't living at home with her parents. After having to fix the walls and buy new furniture one time too many, they had sat her down and gave her an ultimatium. Shape up or ship out. Believing the problem lay with them and not with her, she had left. She'd thought she'd found a good thing with this place. Now it was ruined. Like most things in her life. 

Growling, riding the wave clear into the waiting pity pool, Tayven failed to hear the soft landing made on the floor just beside her. She looked up at the sound of broken glass crunching under feet; into the worried expression of the man who'd flown through her window earlier. "Hey," He said, looking around, "I'm sorry for breaking your window, but, you must have wanted to redecorate or something, huh?" 

She glared up at him. He scratched the back of his neck, looking around nervously, "I know! Why don't you come with me and I'll find us something to eat!" His stomach, as though merely waiting to be aknowleged, growled it's agreement. "Sorry again about your house. I guess I shouldn't have been training so close to the city..." 

"I don't need your help." Tayven said coldly, even though she glanced back at her kitchen, which she knew was ill-stocked. Her own stomach rumbled. Cold cereal just didn't hit the spot, "I'm not a charity case, you know!" 

"I never said you were," He said, "But, I'm hungry! If you want to come with me, come on, if not..." He shrugged and turned towards the window. Tayven fought with herself. A very strong part of her wanted to turn around and ignore him until he was gone. If she'd learned one thing about being on her own, it was that the only person that mattered in the 

end was numero uno and that most people didn't just give anything away for free. But, she was hungry and the prosect of a meal, a real meal, began to override her strong sense of pride and self-presevation. 

"Fine." She said, walking towards him before he could leap from the window, "But the food better be worth it! You totaled my apartment!" 

Laughing, he scooped up her slight weight and flew with her into the air. He asked her for her name and she gave it, waiting for him to comment on how odd it was. Her fist clenched in readiness to knock him one if he even so much as snickered and he told her his name. She didn't feel so bad about her own. 

"Don't worry, Chi Chi's a great cook!" The man who'd just introduced himself as Goku was saying as they touched down outside a round-roofed house, "Come on!" 

"Goku!" Tayven pulled up short at the screeching sound of a woman's voice, cringing, 

"Where have you been?! Where's Gohan! He's suppose to be studying! You know he has a test in the morning!" 

"Chi Chi," Goku strode up to her, planted a kiss on her fuming cheek and turned towards Tayven, "This is Tayven. I asked her to stay for dinner, if that's okay? Oh, Gohan's training with Piccolo, I think...He should be back in time for dinner though." 

"Oh!" Chi Chi seemed embarraced by her outburst, her face red, she smiled widely at Tayven and took her hands, "Come inside, dear! You look so thin! Here! Sit down and I'll fix you something to tide you over until dinner." 

Pulling her hands from Chi Chi's Tayven sat down and waited. 

Dinner at the Son house was horrid, she found out. Not only did she have to suffer though curious looks and personal questions aimed at her by one of the two children; a teenager named Gohan. They aslo had infant boy named Goten. Chi Chi's constant bickering was interrupted only by Goku stuffing his face like there was no tomorrow and getting food all over the place. Although, she reflected, finishing the chicken Chi Chi had made, she'd take his eating habits over his stupidity any day. At least with his mouth full he couldn't talk. 

Sighing, she thanked Chi Chi for the food, feeling more than a little sorry for her, and headed outside. 

"Odd girl," Chi Chi said, as Goku merely shrugged, currently having a love affair with a bowl of mashed potatos. 

"Goku!" Chi Chi cried, reaching over and yanking the bowl of potatoes from his hands, 

"Go after her! It's dangerous for a young girl like herself!" 

"Heh," Goku said, eyeing Gohan's chicken, "I don't think we have to worry about that one..." 

"Gooookuuu..." Chi Chi's voice lowered warningly. Goku sighed, giving one last long look at the food still available and pushed himself away from the table, heading outside after Tayven. 

~*~*~

Sweat dripping in his eyes, Vegeta, the Prince of all Saiyans, reached over and flipped a switch on the wall. A whoosh of air and the door to the outside world slid open. Pausing, his foot on the threshhold, about to step from the gravity room he'd shut himself up in since that afternoon after lunch, as a sudden feeling overcame him. He sensed something. An unfamilar enegry...drawing near. 

It was easy enough to seperate the weak ki of the woman, Bulma, from his toddler son, Trunks and the new source that was approuching at a slow pace. Wiping his face on his sleeve, Vegeta glared into the setting sun. 

~*~*~

Tayven walked on. She didn't much know where she was going. She didn't much care. She just couldn't stand one more minute in that house. With those...people. She was thankful for the food and had made sure to say as much to the woman of the house, but that was as far as it went. 

She had work to do and nothing was going to get done unless she left. She needed to find shelter for the night and, hopefully, a place to stay for awhile. She didn't have any money so she knew it was going to be an even harder task. She cringed as she thought of it, but it seemed she'd have no choice but to join those streetwalkers on the corner. At least long enough to get some cash togeher. 

She saw a large yellow building up ahead and sighed. _Well, It's too late to try hiking back into the city now, _She thought, _Maybe they'll let me crash with them for the night. _

She was nearly at the walkway when she felt a rush of air behind her. Stopping and turning around, hands on her hips, she said loudly; "What do you think your doing, Goku?" 

"I...uh...Chi Chi was worried..." He landed in front of her and looked around, "Sorry, I thought..." 

"You thought what?" Her eyes narrowed, "That poor helpless _little girl_ needs to be escorted about after dark?" 

From the shadows near the Gravity room door, Vegeta's ears pricked up at the sound of the voices. He'd felt Kakkarot's ki as well, but tried to ignore it. He smirked to himeself as he listened to her harsh tone towards Kakkarot. Before he could stop himself, he began to wonder who she was and where she came from. 

"Well..." Goku smiled, "You have to admit, you _are_ little..." 

Before he could do or say anything else, Tayven's eyes flashed in anger and her fist shot out, catching him on the jaw. He wasn't phased, of course, being saiyan, but the act of her sudden attack shocked him into stumbling backwards. Tripping on a lose stone, Goku flailed about but landed with a thump on his rear end. Tayven stepped over him and said; 

"I told you before. I don't _need _your help." 

She spun around as Vegeta watched, stepping towards the house, when suddenly, it seemed, she was bathed in a bright golden aura. It made his breath catch and stilled his heart. She seemed an etherel goddess dropped down to spend a few moments among mortals. Music that sounded like an orchesta began to play, it's notes surrounding and caressing his very being. 

Then. 

"Woman!" Vegeta yelled, squinting into the light as Tayven held a hand over her eyes, 

"Turn off that damn floodlight!"

"Sorry!" Came a woman's reply from inside the house. The sudden blazing light was snuffed out. 

"And turn down that noise!" Vegeta shouted again. 

There came a series of cursing inside, but the music died down. 

Tayven regarded him with barely hid curiousity, hands on her hips. "So..." She looked around at the building behind him, "Capsule Corp, huh? You live here?" 

"As if it's any business of yours," Vegeta said coldly, arms folded over his chest, "But, yes, I do. Who are you? Kakkarot! No! Don't eat that, you baka!" 

Goku, looking startled, held a funny looking plant to his mouth. Turning red, he dropped it quickly and kicked it aside with his foot. Vegeta ignored him and turned back to the girl, who he noticed with no little amount of satifaction, was a good head _shorter _than he was. Which, of course, was a rarity. 

"My name is Tayven." She said, "Listen, do you mind if I stay over tonight, it's too late to walk back to the..." 

"I don't care what you..." Vegeta began but was interrupted by another voice. 

"Vegeta!" Bulma stalked outside, her hair up in curlers, "What's going on out here? Who is this?" 

"No body!" Vegeta snarled, "Just some female." 

"Vegeta!" Bulma scolded, "Be nice! You look tired, dear..." She said, turning to Tayven, "Come inside and we'll find you a place to sleep." 

"She is not staying here!" Vegeta yelled, following after them into the house. Bulma ignored him and showed Tayven to one of the guest rooms, telling herself to make herself at home. Tayven knew the woman's name all ready. One did not live in Satan City for long and not know who the president of Capsule Corp was. Sitting down on the bed, she looked around. 

It was a nice enough room. White plush carpeting, wicker furniture and, she noticed, a rounded balcony off the side through a pair of sliding glass doors. The room even had a small table and chair and a dresser in the corner for her clothes. If she had any clothes, that was. There was a small bathroom connected to her room as well. She used that bathroom now to take a quick shower and wash her hair. It felt so good not to have to bath in lukewarm water that turned cold after only five minutes. She must have stayed in there, under the spray, for a good twenty minutes. 

There was a knock on the door as she stood in the center of the room, a towel tucked over her almost non-exsistant chest and reaching her ankles. Before she could say anything, it was opened a crack and something tossed inside. Bulma's voice sang out; "I noticed you didn't have a bag with you. I brought you something to wear." 

"Um," Tayven faltered, "Thanks." 

The door clicked shut and Tayven walked over to where the saw the object being dropped. Reaching down, she picked it up and noticed it was a powder blue nightgown, a bit transparent and too frilly for her tastes, but she really didn't have anything esle since her own clothing needed a good scrub to say the least. She put it on quickly and turned to look at herself in the full length mirror on the back of the bathroom door, blushing readily when she saw how...um...cold...it must be in the room. 

"Well," She sighed, "No use complaining. Beggars can't be choosers." 

Crawling into bed, suddenly tired beyond all endurance, Tayven sank into a dreamless sleep in a matter of moments. The problem was, she was a very light sleeper and often woke up three or four times in the middle of the night, mostly for no apparent reason. She became aware of being awake slowly, feeling scared for a few moments as the feeling of being someplace she didn't know died down as she recalled events of the previous night. Sitting up, her shoulder-length normally straight black hair had dried wet the night before, looked like a bird had built a nest in the back of it. 

She slipped out of bed and padded, on barefeet, towards the bathroom. Using a brush she'd found under the sink, she tamed her hair back down and got the tangles free. That done, she got back into bed and closed her eyes, trying to fall back to sleep. However, after five minutes of trying she gave up and realized that sleep just wasn't in the cards at the moment. 

Glancing to the side, she noticed the lights from the numbers on the clock beside the bed read 3:45a.m. Sitting up again, she thought, _I bet everyone's asleep. How often do I get a chance to explore the president of Capsule Corp's home? _With that thought riding foremost in her mind, Tayven, not caring how revealing her attire was, after all, everyone would be asleep so who'd see her, right?, crept out of her room and down the hall. 

~*~*~

"Why can't you lay still!" Bulma complained after Vegeta's hundreth time rolling around on his side of the bed, "I can't sleep with you tossing and turning, Vegeta!" She hissed, her back to him. She heard his stomach growl and added; "Go get something to eat, then!" 

Not saying a word, Vegeta sat up and shoved the blankets aside. It was too damn hot in the room. That was why he couldn't sleep. Dressed in a white t-shirt and black boxers, he crossed the room and stepped out into the hallway, meaning to head towards the kitchen for something to eat. Maybe after a full stomach he'd be able to get some rest.

He wasn't prepared for what greeted him. 

Tayven was standing with her back to him, peering down at Bulma's computer, obviously intrigued. Just as she was about to touch the screen to activate it, Vegeta cleared his throat and she jumped, startled, like a kid with it's hand in the cookie jar. 

"What are you doing?" He asked, leaning casually against the counter, smirking at her, 

"Besides snooping around, I mean?" 

Tayven's face flushed. She turned to face him, arms akimbo in her habitual stance when dealing with people who pissed her off, "As if you have anything worth snooping into." 

Ignoring her comment, Vegeta's eyes dropped and he did not hide the fact that he was staring at her barely concealed body beneath the gown Bulma had loaned her. Tayven had completely forgotten what she wore. The way his dark eyes traveled just now reminded her and she folded her arms over her chest, trying to hide them from his persual. 

"Just what do you think your looking at?" She hissed, angry, "Stop staring at me. Haven't you ever seen breasts before?" 

"Of course," He said, not able to resist the urge to goad her on, "Just never ones that small before. Are you sure your a female...?" 

"You asshole!" She ran forward, swung her fist back and meant to knock him one as she did Goku earlier. But, he was too fast for her and grabbed her by her fist, holding it in place between him. She glared at him through dark brown eyes and he shoved her backwards so that she fell on her butt on the kitchen floor. 

"Don't try that again, _girl_," He said, staring down at her, "Next time I won't be so gentle." 

~*~*~

Tayven got to her feet quickly, ignoring the pain in her hip from where it had struck the floor of the kitchen. Hard. She knew there would be a bruise in a few short hours. She didn't care. It wasn't like she'd never had bruises before. Slipping past Vegeta, she paused long enough to say, over her shoulder, "There won't be a next time." 

Grunting in response, Vegeta turned to eye the contents of the refridgerator, his stomach suddenly becoming his main concern now that the girl was out of the room. She was of little worry. He'd smelled the fear issueing from her when he'd knocked her down and threatened her, even though she tried to hide it. 

~*~*~

Tayven cursed herself for being intimidated by him. She'd tried not to show it, but she was almost certain he knew. Actually, if she were honest with herself, and most of the time she wasn't, a lot of things intimidated her. She just tried to put on a brave front so that people wouldn't think she was an easy target. She'd seen her share of girls and boys taken advantage of since she left home and vowed to never be one of them. Even if that meant never being able to allow herself to become close to any other living being. When one gets themselves involved with other people, even for friendship, they start to lay claims on each other. 

Tayven had no use for claims of any sort. She'd be leaving soon. 

Sighing, she made her way back the room she'd been assigned and tried to sleep the rest of the night, waking up only when the sun's rays put forth it's fingers to softly push the dust of sleep from her eyes. Yawning, she sat up and quickly used the bathroom, wondering what she was going to wear since her own clothes were still dirty. After a moment, she shrugged and put them on instead. She'd find a bathroom in the city and.... 

A knock on the door and Bulma entered half a second later. Eyeing Tayven's attire, she cringed and said; "Tayven. Let me have those...to...uh...wash." She held a capsule in one palm and tossed to Tayven, who caught it readily, "Some clean clothes." Bulma added, leaving Tayven alone again. 

After half a second, Tayven shrugged and tossed the capsule to the floor. After a brief flash, she beheld a pair of faded black jeans, a pair of white cotton underwear with a little pink ribbon on the front, white ankle socks and a dark blue t-shirt that had the Capsule Corp logo enblazoned across the front. 

Even though it went against every fiber of her being to accept such obvious charity, Tayven couldn't stand her stinky clothes anymore and quickly ditched them for the cleaner set. Once she'd redressed, she brushed her hair down and gave herself a quick once-over in the mirror. Briefly, she wished she had some makeup, but then, she'd been born lucky. She had her mother's nearly flawless peaches and cream complexion with a tiny beauty mark just under her left eye and a dimple that played in and out of her right cheek when she smiled. 

She did so now, just to see what she looked like smiling instead of scowling. Showing her teeth she was happy that she'd made sure to take as good a care of them as she could; brushing them everyday and flossing. She couldn't afford to go to a dentist, but at least she could do what she could. Her teeth weren't completely white and she had a few cavities in the back. They were slightly crooked in front, but they seemed to give her character rather than make her look ugly. She often thought her teeth looked a bit like that singer, Jewel's. 

"Tayven?" Bulma knocked on the bedroom door, not waiting to be given permission to enter. Tayven figured since it was her house, she didn't have to, "Breakfast is almost ready. If you want to eat I suggest you hurry." 

"Thank you, Ms. Briefs..." Tayven fumbled not sure what, exactly, to call her. Bulma smiled and shook her head; "No, dear, just call me Bulma." 

Bulma left her and few moments later Tayven came downstairs to the kitchen. Vegeta was just sitting down, eyeing the food Bunny, Bulma's ditzy mother, had cooked. Quickly, Tayven reached over and snatched a plate of bacon off the table, ignoring Vegeta's glare, she jumped up onto the counter top and began nibbling on a peice. Bunny, humming under her breath, placed a fresh plate of bacon in front of Vegeta. She poured a glass of orange juice for Tayven and handed it to the girl as she walked past back to the stove. 

Tayven finished the bacon and her juice, feeling full. She did not get up off the counter and leave, however. She continued watching Vegeta as he scarfed down a meal that would have easily feed a family of five for three days. After a few minutes, he looked up to catch her staring in wide-eyed wonder. 

"What?!" He asked, his mouth full of scrambled egg, some of it escaping to land around the plate in front of him, "Are you gawking at?" 

"There are people starving you know." 

"So?" He said, reaching for the toast and jam, "What's your point?" 

"Ugh, never mind." She said, hopping down from the counter and heading out of the room. She paused before the computer, however and gazed longingly at it. She tried not to think about it, but all the stories she'd been working on have all been lost. She knew she could rewrite them, but they wouldn't come out the way she originally had them. She was still angry at Goku for that. "I'm going to ask Bulma about something." 

Vegeta didn't bother to respond. _He _was having a love affair with a plate of pork sausages. 

~*~*~

"Yes?" Bulma, holding her little son on her hip, had been going over some blueprints on her desk in her office when Tayven had knocked. "Tayven. What can I do for you?" 

The little boy made a face at her and she narrowed her eyes. She never cared for very small children much. Teenagers, like herself, fine, but not little kids. They annoyed her. It seemed to her that they were always messy, sticky, bothersome little creatures that were basically more trouble than they were worth. 

Ignoring him, she asked; "Do you think it would be okay if I used your computer? The one in the kitchen? I just want to rewrite some of my stories and if you have a disk I can use to save them..." 

"Sure, sure," Bulma seemed distracted, "Help yourself. If you want to go online just hit the round Capsule Corp button on the bottom of the screen. The password's all ready saved." 

Bulma went back to the blueprints and little Trunks began a series of baby babble as Tayven closed the door behind her. Tayven wasn't even sure why she was even bothering to think about her writing at a time like this. Not when she didn't even have a place to live for Kami's sake! But, sometimes, her priorities were a bit mixed up to say the least. Besides, when would she get a chance to try out a Capsule Corp created computer again? 

She just hoped Vegeta was done and out of the kitchen by the time she went back in there. 

Walking back the kitchen, Tayven was glad to see that the one person there was Bulma's mother who was busy cleaning up after Vegeta. _Man_, she thought to herself as she sat down at the desk, _I feel sorry for Mrs. Briefs! How many dishes did he use?! _Putting aside that thought, Tayven touched the screen to activate the computer. She was about to click on the word processing program when something caught her eye. 

A word file. Curious, she clicked it and read; "The Story Of The Saiyans By Bulma Briefs" Hmm, so Bulma is a writer too...? Tayven couldn't resist the urge to peek at her story. After reading for a hour and a half, Tayven's eyes became tired and her head began to hurt. It was a very engrossing tale, however, and she found herself being drawn into it. Especially when she realized that the people in Bulma's story weren't just people from her imagination, but her family and friends. 

She was unaware of someone standing behind her, having gotten so wrapped up in the story on the screen she failed to hear the appoaching footsteps. She was also unaware of how her fists were clenched on her lap and she was yelling at the computer, or rather, at the story she was reading. "No! That's bullshit!" She cried, "Don't tell me that...that idiot became a Super Saiyan _first_! That's just...retarded!" 

"That's pretty much what I thought." 

She turned around in the chair and gasped, her face red from being caught reacting so dramatically to a few words on a screen. "H-how long have you...been...?" 

"Listening to you?" Vegeta smirked, looking over her shoulder at the story, "About five minutes. You don't really pay much attention to your surroundings, do you?" 

"So," She said, closing the file once she was done reading, "Goku's pretty strong, huh?" 

"He's a saiyan." Vegeta responded, as though that was all that needed to be said. 

"But he's stronger than you, right?" Tayven asked, folding her legs up under herself and 

spinning the chair around in a circle, "No matter how hard you train, you've never been able to get stronger than him...right?" 

Suddenly, Vegeta reached out and caught the chair, halting it's spinning and leaned down to peer into Tayven's face. "Shut...up!" 

Tayven watched him stalk away before turning back to the computer. Slowly a smile crept across her face as an idea came to her. She opened up the writing program and began to type. After what seemed hours she finally paused, reread what she'd written and smiled. She titled the story and stood up, stretched and walked to the fridge, hungry. It wasn't time for lunch yet, but she was sure no one would mind if she had a snack. She was just turning around, nibbling on a leftover ham sandwich someone had placed in there, when 

Vegeta came back into the kitchen, probably hungry. 

"What is this?" He asked, as he looked at the writing still spread across the screen, "Why are you writing about me?" 

Tayven shrugged. The story she'd just finished writing, she knew, was entitled "Vegeta's Story: The Way It Should Have Been." It was pure fantasy, of course, sort of a 'what-if' tale. She didn't know why she wrote it, being as how Vegeta's been nothing but a prick to her the entire time she'd been here, but sometimes, when the writing bug bites she can't always choose what the subject matter is going to be. 

Her story was nearly identical to Bulma's. With one major difference. Vegeta was stronger than Goku. He beat Goku in every fight _and _reached Super Saiyan _before _Goku. There were some other changes she added, but they were so stuble as to be hardly noticable. She stood with her back against the fridge door, waiting for him to finish reading and give his opinion. 

"I like your vision," He said at last, "Unfortunatly, none of what you wrote is true." 

"I know that!" She said, finishing the sandwish and wiping her mouth on her sleeve, "I just didn't like the way Bulma wrote it." 

"But, her version is truth." He said, "Yours is not." 

"So?" Tayven asked, eyebrows raised into her hairline, "What's your point?" 

Instead of answering, Vegeta choice to change the subject. 

"Are you leaving today sometime?" He looked bored and ready to be done with her and the conversation, "If so, you should head out while it's still day light." 

"I was going to leave today, yes," Tayven said, smiling a rare smile, "But, on second thought, I think I'll ask Bulma if I can stay longer. Besides, I can see how annoyed you are at having me around." 

"So, why don't you just leave?" He said coldly. 

"What?" Tayven asked, "And miss all the fun?" 

"Your dangerously close to pissing me off, girl," He said, striding towards the fridge and shoving her aside to open it and scan the inside, "You would do well to keep that tongue of yours in check." 

Her eyes narrowed in sudden anger, Tayven picked herself up off the floor where she'd fallen when he'd shoved her aside and snapped; "Bite me!" Before turning around and, before she could stop herself, slammed her fist through the computer's screen. The glass shattered around her hand sending jagged peices of glass into her fist and wrist. But she didn't feel the pain, all she felt was a grudging satisifaction and the sad realization that she'd, once more, ruined things by losing her temper. 

Pulling her hand from the gaping, edged hole in the computer's monitor, Tayven became subdued and hung her head. She sighed and, her hand dripping blood down her leg she held it at her side and onto the floor, walked out of the room. Leaving Vegeta to glare after her. He wasn't worried about her hurting herself. No, rather, he didn't want to deal with Bulma's screeching at him when she found out what had happened to her computer. 

Deciding that perhaps it would be better to not be around for awhile...perhaps for a good while, Vegeta turned and headed outside, holding some cold fried chicken that Bulma's mother had made the other day. 

Upon walking outside, he saw the girl, Tayven, standing next to one of the large oak trees Bulma's mother had thought would be a good place for her cats to climb and sun themselves when she'd had them uprooted from a forest and replanted on thier property. 

He stood a little ways away from her, meaning to just take off and get the hell away from everyone for a bit, at least until the girl was gone and Bulma was over whatever her reaction to her busted computer would be, watching as she raised her fists and began to pound upon the thick trunk's solidness. Tears were pouring from her eyes and her damaged hand was red and blood-caked. After a few moments of this, she tired and sank to her knees, still sobbing uncontrollably. 

Tayven did not know she was being observed. Had she known she would have clammed up straight away and tried to pretend that she'd never been weeping, saying that if it had looked that way then whoever had seen her should get his eyes checked for she didn't cry like some stupid weak girl. Did she? Yet, she thought she was alone and so the tears came. Tears of frustration and helplessness as well as of anger. She was angry at the whole world; At her parents, her childhood which was robbed from her, at her so-called friends who had ditched her almost as soon as they could, but, most all, she was angry with herself for her inability to keep herself from striking first and asking questions later. 

"Stupid brat, you broke that computer!" Vegeta said as he made himself known to her, he thought she was a complete dolt for not paying attention to where she was and who was around. But, she wasn't his problem so he didn't let the thought bother him long, "Stop your sniveling!" 

"Shut up!" She coughed, sniffed and swiped at her eyes with her arm, now dirty from leaning against the tree, "Just shut the hell up!" 

"Why don't you come over here and make me shut up, girl." He said, standing close but not too close to her, "Or are computer screens and trees the only things you can fight?" 

He took a bite of the chicken leg he'd been holding then tossed it to the ground as he beheld the expression on the girl's face. 

She looked up, rage crossing her features and changing her normally 'cute' little girl looks to something more savage and filled with a kind of hunger no food could ever sate. She pushed herself to her feet and, screaming, tears still blinding her, launched herself at Vegeta. It was a clumsly, unskilled attack and left her spun around faster than she could blink and landing with a hard thud that knocked the wind out of her on her back at his feet, staring upside-down at him. 

"Is that the best you can do?" He laughed, turning to walk away, "I don't know why I've wasted my time on..." 

She raced at him, her fists flying out to punch him in the back, but he spun around and blocked her attack easily, grabbing her and using her own mometuim to fling her to the ground once more. Fury driving her onward, she hardly felt the pain as she hit the ground time after time, always picking herself back up and trying, once more, to get the best of him. 

Finally, exhausted, her anger dripping from her like milk through a cracked drinking glass, Tayven did not rise after being thrown to the ground for the hundreth-some time. Instead she lay there, panting, tired, suddenly feeling all the bruises her body had sustained and wanting nothing more than to lay down somewhere and die. However, just laying down somewhere and dying was not in her character and so she pushed herself into a sitting position and glared at Vegeta, who'd been standing, arms crossed, waiting to see what she would do. 

"So?" He asked, finally, "Are you done feeling sorry for yourself?" 

"Shut...up..." She hissed, moving hurt, she groaned, "Don't...think this...is over..." 

"I would be highly disapointed if it were," He said, smirking at her, "But you've got a long way to go before you can even think about matching me in a fight. Not that you ever _will_ be able to..." 

She glared at him, fists clenched, and stood on shaking legs to look at him and listen, really listen to what he was saying to her. _What was he going on about? _Her mind was clouded, a bit scrambled to say the least, he sounded far off as if he were talking to her over a long-distant telephone. She struggled to pull the cotton from her ears and focus on what he was saying. 

"...you to fight and defend yourself..." She caught his last words and she blinked, confused. He was offering to teach her how to fight. Why? She wondered. He clearly did not like her. In fact, he seemed overjoyed at the prospect of her leaving. Why did he want to help her like this? What could he possibly gain from it? All these questions and more were riding through her head as he looked down at her, "That is, unless you think your too scared and weak to let me train you..." 

"I'm not weak!" She cried, her cheeks flaming, "And I'm certainly not scared! Of anything!" 

Vegeta knew this to be a lie and so did Tayven. She was afraid of a great many things and even though her body was weak, as it was now, she was very much strong in spirit. Vegeta was counting on this very strength to sway her decision. He did not know why, if asked, he was even considering taking her under his wing, so to speak. But, there was something about the girl he couldn't quite put his finger on. 

Something in the way she talked back to him and always seemed to want to fight the world and it's creatures rather than submit quietly to life's hardships that...well, frankly...got to him. He found that he did not want her to leave, but he figured as long as she was around he'd put her to use. Besides, she needed another outlet for that temper of her's. 

"I'll give you a choice," He said, turning to leave, "Be here at five in the morning. If your late or don't show, you have to leave Capsule Corp and go your own way." 

"And if I do show up?" She asked, her voice filled with disdain, "What then?" 

"Then," Vegeta took the the air and scowled down at her, "You are welcome to stay here, as long as you like, and you become my student. But don't think I'm going to be as easy on you as I was today, Tayven." 

Tayven sighed and he was gone. 


	2. Trapped!

Uncertain why she was even bothering, after all why should she do him any favors by showing up, Tayven was up and about at 4:30 the next morning. Shivering from the cold, she stood outside Capsule Corp near the oak tree she'd abused the night before, waiting. Her breath came out in white clouds due to the chill in the air and she hopped from one foot to the other, trying to stay warm. Being thin, she got cold too fast and had a hard time keeping her body heat in. Her teeth had begun to chatter when he appeared, stretching and walking from the house. 

"I see you've decided to be smart for once." He said to her. She shrugged, trying hard to keep her temper in check. Besides, it was too damn cold this morning to get upset over nothing. With much effort she let his remark slide. Time enough later to make him pay for it, She thought as he approached her. "First thing you're going to learn is to show some respect."

She glared and folded her arms across her chest, doing a perfect imitation of him. Without warning, he cuffed her across the ear and she cried out, in pain, holding her now-bleeding ear. "Ow! Dammit! What did you do that for, asshole!"

"I did that because I didn't like that look you just gave me," Vegeta said, seriously, "If you don't want more of the same, You have a perfectly good ear you know, I'd start showing some respect."

For a moment Tayven considered continuing to glare, but after a heartbeat she unfolded her arms and a look of expectation bordering on trepidation crossed her petite features. Knowing that he had her attention now, Vegeta said; "Now, the next thing you are going to learn is how to tap into your ki and..."

"Wait, wait...my what?" She asked, confused, he growled at the interruption and she began to realize that he wasn't a very patient teacher. Well, she wasn't a very patient student so she supposed they were equal where that was concerned. 

"Don't interrupt!" He barked and began again as if she'd never spoken; " ...learn how to focus it. It will add power to your physical attacks and... " 

"You never told me what...what...ki is..." She said, backing a few steps away as he glared at her for interrupting him yet again. "Sorry..." She said softly. 

"Basically, it's your enegry, Tayven, your essence...or spirit." He tried to explain, gesturing with his hands as he did so, "Those who know how, can tap into thier ki and manipulate it to into taking forms of enegery-based projectiles and other things." 

"What other things?" She asked, clearly interested, she seemed to recall reading something about this in Bulma's story, but had forgotten in the events of the previous night. Some of it came rushing back to her as Vegeta talked, but not all of it. 

"You can use your ki to fly," He said, floating himself a few feet in the air as if to demonstate, "Like so. Understand?"

"Sorta..." She said, shaking her head. Her words said she understood, but her scent, as he sniffed the air around her, told him different. Confusion and uncertainy leaked from her in waves. He lowered himself to the ground, reached out and took her hand. She flinched and tried to pull away, automatically reverting back to her natural state when anyone tried to touch her, which was to move away from that person. 

He read the distrust in her body langage as well as in her scent and smirked; "I'm not going to hurt you, Tayven, I merely wish to show you something. Relax." She tried, but she kept having this image of him cuffing her other ear and kept flinching away from his empty hand. Finally, seeing as she was still too suspicious of his motives, he moved away from her and held out one of his own hands for her to see. With little effort he formed a golden-white ball of light on the palm of his hand, allowing it to grow in size until it was nearly covered his entire hand. 

With a quick spin and flick of his wrist, he let the ball go and she watched as it shot into the sky and exploded upon contact with something, she hoped it wasn't a bird or, Kami forbid, an airplain! Turning back to her, he found that she was watching with eyes wide, amazement etched across her features. 

"Now," He said, "Give me your hand." 

It took a long time and lots of practice, but she finally successed in forming a very small, nearly transparent, orb from her own ki on her palm under Vegeta's hard guidence. She was proud of herself until he scoffed at her and told her what a pathetically weak thing she was. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to try again. Sweating, her eyes blurry from concentrating, she focused on finding that center of herself and pulling her energy upwards from it. When the ball began to form upon her palm she envisioned it being akin to a hunk of virgin clay, ready to be shaped and molded into what she desired, and, when she wanted to make the ki ball bigger, she imagined layering on more and more clay to the ball to make it grow in size. 

"Hmm..." Vegeta commented, watching her progess, "Not bad. Better than your first try, that's for sure." 

Tayven looked up, her dark hair hanging in her eyes and grinned. The moment she did so, however, she lost her focus and the ki ball dwindled and finally simmered down into nothingness. She knew the enegery had been sucked back inside herself to be called forth and used at a later time, but still, the loss of something she'd created from her own body made her feel...she wasn't sure...sad, she supposed. Silly as that was. 

Without warning, Vegeta turned from her and snarled.   


"Kakkarot..." 

"What?" Tayven asked, "S-Sensei...what?"

Before he could answer her, Goku's form appeared on the horizon and he flew down to greet them. He was as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (well, if he HAD a tail, that is!) as ever and made Tayven want to smack him for looking so happy so early in the morning. Well, technically, it was almost noon...

Had he no sense at all?! "Hey, Vegeta! Tayven!" He grinned from ear to ear, "What are you two doing up so early?"

"Non of your business, Kakkarot! What are you doing here?" Vegeta glared and Goku merely laughed, as if he weren't take aback by Vegeta's icy tone at all. 

"I just came by to see if you were interested in a little sparring," Goku said, stretching, "You know, keep the old muscles limber...but if your too busy with the kid, I understand..." 

Snorting, Vegeta seemed to dismiss Goku as he looked at Tayven. "You go work on utilizing your ki. Kakkarot," He added, turning back to Goku, "Let's go." 

Watching them fly off into the sky, Tayven held a hand over her eyes to block the glare from the sun and saw them become two glowing shapes against the blue of the crisp nearly-noon sky before they're movements became too fast for her naked eye, alone, to follow. 

She began to work on manupilating her ki a bit more, until her stomach became envious of her attentions and made itself know in a most loud and unpleasent way. 

"Oh, Tayven, dear..." Bunny smiled, making a beeline for her as soon as she'd walked into the room, "Bulma wanted met to let you know that you are to be staying a bit longer with us, dear, and that she will be taking you shopping after lunch...she wants you to be sure to be ready to go right after you eat." 

Tayven nodded moved passed her as politely as she could, towards the kitchen. She felt a bit funny about just helping herself, but after she did so a few times the night before and no one said anything, she didn't think it was against the rules of the house. She found a tuna cassarole and scooped out a few hunks, microwaved the stuff on a dish and ate it quietly. Glancing at the clock, she noted the time as being a little bit after ten in the morning. She hadn't realized so much time had gone by! 

Stuffing the last noodle from the casserole into her mouth, she resisted the urge to lick the plate and placed it in the sink, running water over it to rinse it for Bulma's mother. Running her hands through her thick black hair, Tayven sighed and looked around, suddenly restless. She wondered if Vegeta and Goku were finished yet so she could see what else Vegeta had to teach her. Walking outside, she gazed about for either sign of them, but they were nowhere to be seen. _Probably off distroying some other poor sap's apartment_, She thought grimly and began to walk. She figured a nice stroll would help clear her mind and help her think. She often went for walks alone when she needed to think and to still her restlessness. 

She hadn't been walking for very long when she saw it. Squinting, she glared ahead of her until the shape took form and she could readily tell what it was that loomed out of the landscape. A house. Not just any house, but a very old house by the look of the arcitecture. It reminded her of homes she'd glimpsed in magizines a few times, _what were they called? _She asked herself as she walked up to it, placing her hands upon the faded and broken white picket fence and gazing at the house, _Victorian? _No, that wasn't right, _Tudor! _Yes that was it! 

Though, in actuality, it looked like a cross between the two styles and, to make it even more bizzare, she noticed, it was shaped like a hexagon with many windows, all dark and some broken, marking it's walls all around. _Whoever lived here was obviously not around anymore_, She thought, still looking at it from the outside of the picket fence, _If they were, this place wouldn't be in such bad shape..._

"I dare you to go up and touch it!" She jumped at the sound of the voice and then turned her head slightly to see Gohan grinning at her. She looked around, but didn't see anyone else. "I double dog dare you!" 

"Ugh, I don't have time for this..." She turned and started to walk away, but he stopped her. 

"Unless your too scared..." 

Spinning around, she stomped past him, flung the gate open so hard it slammed once against the side of the fence and then slammed shut again, and marched towards the old house's cracked and peeling front doors. _I'll do more than merely touch the house_, she thought, grim in her determination to disprove his theory that she was too scared. Reaching for the doorhandle she pushed and it gave, squeaking open on neglected hinges to allow her access. 

"Hey! Tayven!" Gohan flew over to her and landed next to her, just as she was about to venture forth into the darkness of the house, "I never meant for you to go breaking and entering..." 

"Shut up!" She hissed, walking into the house. After a moment's hesitation, Gohan followed. It struck her almost the moment she'd crossed the threshold. Gasping, she felt as she couldn't breath. Falling down onto the floor, she clutched at her throat, clawing at herself in her panic to get air into her lungs. Tears flooded her eyes and rolled down her cheeks and she looked up at the boy, who was staring down at her in muted shock, unable to fathom what he should do. 

Her eyes turned towards the doorway desperately. 

Almost before they knew it, the door creaked and suddenly slammed shut. Gohan ran to the door and tried to open it but it wouldn't budge. Looking back at Tayven, who was turning blue, he formed a ki blast and shot it at the wall, hoping to cause a big enough gap in the wall to get them out of there so she could start breathing normally again. He wasn't sure, but he had a feeling that whatever was happening to her had something to do with this odd house. 

His ki blast was deflected and came shooting back towards him and Tayven. He shoved her out of the way and it exploded against the wall behind them, only, the wall, when the smoke cleared, was, amazingly, still in tact! However, Tayven, at least, wasn't suffocating any longer. Gasping, she became to breath normally, and sat up, hugging herself, looking around. When she removed her hands from her throat Gohan gasped when he saw the marks of someone's fingers wrapped about her slender neck. Marks that had not been there before they'd entered the house. 

"S-Something...about this place..." Tayven whispered, horsely, "What do you know about this house, Gohan?" 

"N-not much," Gohan said, looking around and trying to find a way out, everything seemed sealed beyond opening and not even his half-saiyan strength seemed a match to the prison the house had suddenly become, "To tell you the truth...I don't even remember it being here, until today...The I just thought; 'Oh, well, it had to have been here all along, didn't it?'" 

Tayven scooped herself from the floor and walked slowly around towards the stairwell, noticing, by the light filtering in through the cracked windows, that the wooden steps were crumbling and falling apart, either due to age or insects or both. Grasping the bannister, she lifted her foot the first step, praying that it would hold her wieght. There was something up there, she knew, she could feel it. Something beyond the stairwell past the darkness of the hallway inside one of the abadoned bedrooms. 

Something waiting for her. 

She felt a hand on her arm, pulling her back. "No! Don't!" Gohan cried, "Those stairs! They're about to fall apart! It's too dangerous!" 

She tried to pull her arm free, but he was strong, too strong. "Let me go, Gohan." She said, "I have to get up there...I just _have_ to!" 

She didn't know why it was so important, but suddenly it just was. She just had to get up those stairs. Down that hallway. Into that room. That room. It was calling to her. She felt it, not in words with her ears, but with something else, something inside herself. She felt something within that room calling, screaming, pleading with her to come. _Come_. 

Come to it. 

Without warning, Gohan wrapped his arms about her waist and lifted them both off the ground, using his ki to transfer them both into the air and up the stairs without touching them and risk injury. Tensing at first, Tayven relaxed, her arms about his neck as she watched the top of the stairs grow larger and larger as they neared the edge. When they'd reached the landing, Gohan let her go and she stepped away from him, still being drawn down the corridor, almost against her will. 

She looked back at him once and he shuddered at the look in her dark eyes. It was as though she were begging for his help, but was unable to form the words, silently, her eyes screamed at him to do something, anything, as her feet keep walking of thier own accord. _What was happening_?! He wondered, panic making his heart pound, _Why can't I just blast us out of here!? What is this place?! _

Tayven...What's wrong with her?! 

"T-Tayven..." He started, following her, not liking the darkness, the unnatural darkness, that seemed to engulf them like a lover's embrace on all sides, "I have a _bad_ feeling about this..." 


	3. Control, Lost

Her eyes unfocused, hazy, she looked down the hallway and took a step, another. Gohan followed, not failing to notice the odd fog creeping along the hallway or how cold it had suddenly become. Was that a light leaking from the cracks around the doorway of the last bedroom? She grabbed his hand in her own, fast, and tugged him along with her, mumbling under her breath. 

Tayven didn't know what was happening. She was scared. No, she was more than scared, she was completely fucking freaked the hell out! She had no will of her own anymore. Her body moved as though controlled by invisible strings, tugging her consceince mind along for the ride. 

Easing open the door to the last bedroom, she pulled Gohan in behind her and the door slammed shut on them almost at once, startling them. Gohan fell at once into a defensive stance, glaring around, as she stood rigid, in the center of the room, holding her breath and waiting. Waiting for something but she did not know what. She took this time between what was to happen and nothingness to take a look around the room they had found themselves within. 

It was small. She brushed her head against the ceiling, it was that tiny! The walls, which looked as though they had once been a pretty butter yellow with white daisies spread across them, were faded and the paper was peeling allowing some of the paneling to show through, like gaping holes in the ripped gi of an injured fighter. There was a small white bed in the corner, it's bedding long since submitted itself over to insects and age, tattered gray linin that looked to at one time have been white or off-white in hue. An old paint-chipped dresser the same color as the bed...used to be...sat against the wall and, she noticed several different types of old toys lay, broken or just abandonded, about the room. 

She, and Gohan stood on a circular rug that looked as if it may have been rainbow colored and bright once upon a time. Now, it was a dingy collection of different shades of grays. The dolls sitting up against the dresser and wall around it looked at her through eyes which had lost thier sheen, dust covered them making them appear to be blind as well as inanimate. A chill ran up her spine and she knew it had nothing to do with the cold seeping into bones from this place. 

Suddenly, she heard voices, many voices, children's voices, echoing around her and though her, pummeling her senses. She cried out and fell to the ground, upon her knees, holding her head, begging for it to stop. They were all around them, she could see them now! Children of all shapes and sizes, eyeing them, mocking them, laughing at them and then...drawing nearer...as though...as though... 

They wanted something! Something from her...no...

She gasped as she watched them circle Gohan as well, reaching out with pale, ghostly, etheral hands that passed right through him yet left him shivering in thier wake nonetheless. One look in the boy's face told her was seeing and feeling and hearing them as she was. He tried to hide his fear, but she felt that too. The children...What did they want from them?! As if in answer to her private query, she saw one of them dive into her from her stomach, a sensation like lightning striking her causing her to bolt up and smack her head on the low ceiling. She cried out a tingling began at her fingertips, running a current all though her body and leaving her breathless, unaware that her body had begun to glow with a strange and frightening golden-blue aura. 

The ghostly child who had taken her over slipped out, but did not fade from her visison. She watched as he smiled and held his hands out on either side of him towards his companions. She watched in horror as they closed the circle about her and Gohan, who'd been watching with muted horror, and began to concentrate... 

Gohan, confused and angry that a bunch of ghosts could so hold him in place, cried out once as his power flared up, turning his hair from cronic black angles to straight up and golden, his eyes changing hue from brown to teal in a flash. Tayven saw all this in a moment and in a moment she realized what the ghostly children were after and in that same moment realized Gohan's folly. 

She tried to scream to him, warn him, somehow, but nothing came from her mouth but sparks as her own enegry flaired up like a roman candle, out of control, unable to stop it, unable to control it. 

With one last trace of her own self, her own strength, she flung herself at Gohan and shoved him to the floor. The ghosts were still around them, they hadn't broken thier circle, they were still trapped and now her enegry was entwining, circling, covering and becoming one with his own. 

The children saw this and smiled, drawing closer, eyes holding them down as easily as thier intangible hands could not have. Being so close, 

Tayven could not help hearing Gohan's heart beat against her chest and hear the echo of his thoughts as they rode on a current of thier bound power into her mind. 

We're gonna die, aren't me? 

No, Gohan! We have to fight back! We can't let them win! 

But, they're so strong...and they're not even alive...how?! Are they what's keeping us locked in this house?! 

You distract them...they are drawn to you...when you...you went super saiyan...I...I'll try to find a way out...maybe if they are busy they won't keep an eye on the rest of the 

house...

She started to pull away from him, but he held onto her shoulders and pulled her back down, wrapping his arms about her neck and and clinging tightly to her small frame. She was confused, didn't he want her to find them a way out? _Gohan? _

No! Tayven! Don't! We can't seperate! I don't know how I know this, but we must not let go of each other! We have to stay together! 

But...

Look at them! They're confused and anxious. They want us...our enegry...but they can only take so much, so soon. They want us to seperate so that they can have just one of us. 

With our power connected like this, it stops them.

Yes, but for how long? 

I don't...I don't know...

~*~*~

Bulma stood in the livingroom, dressed in a yellow blouse that hugged her curves and a short black miniskirt with a pair of black and yellow boots. She had her arms at her sides and was looking around in annoyance. She shoved her bangs out of her eyes and sighed; "Where _is _that girl? Mother, didn't you give her my message!?" Glancing at the watch on her delicate wrist she added; "It's not like I haven't anything better to do, oh _no_! Not _Bulma_! It's not like I have an enterprise to run or anything _important_ like that!" 

"Oh, I'm sure she just lost track of time, dear," Bunny said, busy dusting the funiture, "You know how young people are." 

One of her cats hoped upon the sofa and started batting at the feather duster. Bunny chuckled and stroked a finger under it's chin, making it purr loudly before going back to her work. Bulma sank down onto the sofa and glared out the window. Suddenly, she leapt upwards and screamed, making Bunny jump out of her poor shoes, well, not literally, but almost! "Bulma! What is it, dear?!" 

"M-Mother!" Bulma cried, raising a pointed finger, it's nail painted a bright shade of turquiose blue, "That light! Look!" 

Bunny looked out the window and gasped. There was a bright light issueing out beyond the horizon, just over a large hill of rock and grass, so bright it seemed to be jostling the sun aside for attention. "What do you suppose...?" Bulma wondered, talking more to herself than to her mother; "A new enemy perhaps...?" 

Before her mother could stop her, Bulma bolted for the door, yelling over her shoulder, "I'm gonna go check it out!" 

"Bulma! Wait!" 

Bulma was too far gone to hear her, she raced to her garage, grabbed her motorbike and started it up, hopping on and zooming in a cloud of dust towards the strange light. Her curiousity greatly outweighing any fear she had of approaching the oddity. She told herself that she needed to discovered what it was, not for her own sake, but for the sake of the scientific community. 

She was just about there when she saw something fly downwards from the sky at such a speed she could not completely follow towards the illumination. Slowing down when the house came into view, a house she'd never before seen in her life and she'd live in these parts for longer than she could remember, and the figure crashed through one of the broken windows, causing glass and debris to fly outward towards her. Covering her face with her arms, the bike skidded to a halt and nearly flipped over, Bulma coughed, choking on the dust risen from her sudden stop and the busted window. 

~*~*~

He had been meditating not too far away. His senses more alert than at any other time, he'd sensed something was wrong almost at once. He could feel a....wrongness...gathering at a certain point, a sensation that chilled his bones and set his teeth on edge. 

When he'd felt Gohan, the boy who like a son to him, mentally cry out for help and slammed an image of what was happening into Piccolo's mind, the large namekian warrior had jumped up from his previous position, shouting out Gohan's name as he flew towards where he could pick up the boy's ki signature. 

There was something strange about that, too, Piccolo noticed. The boy's ki seemed...different...like it was connected to another's. Almost like...fusion...but not quite. Piccolo shrugged it off as unimportant at the moment. He just needed to get Gohan to safety! He flew until he came to the house, an old house by the looks of it. But, where had it come from? He'd never seen it here before. And yet, yet it looked as if it had always been here. 

He could feel the power pouring out of the old abode, fairly shaking it to it's foundations and threatening to blow the entire stucture sky high. He flew down and tried to punch through one of the upper windows, where he felt Gohan and now, he was certain of it now that he was closer, someone else inside, struggling, losing ground fast. He cried out as some type of current ran through his fist and up his arm. It felt much like smacking the side of a concrete building with a metal rod. The sensation viberated up his arm and down his spine. 

He was knocked backwards by the contact. 

~*~*~

Within the house, the ghostly children had been steadily getting stronger, feeding off of Gohan and Tayven as if they were merely battries to be used and once they'd run out of juice, to be discarded. Tayven watched in shock as they slowly became more focused, losing their etheralness, thier edges rounding out and sharpening. Their faces took on a more clear, real aspect and she whimpered as she looked down at her Gohan and realized that the hand holding onto his shoulder had become slightly transparent. 

Gohan! What's happening to us! I...I'm scared... 

She hadn't wanted to admit to being afraid, but she knew the boy could sense her fear as she could his and there was really no point in trying to deny it. She tried to clung tighter to him, her enegry mixed with his making them look like a glowing yellow-blue ball of overblinding light huddled on the floor of an anceint playroom. 

I...I don't knw! I can't feel my hands...I feel strange...like I'm fading...

Me too! They're getting stronger! What can we do?! 

They're feeding off our power...it's what's making them strong and able to become real! Tayven, I...I tried to power down...but I...can't...I have no control over it...

Tayven, tears falling down see-through cheek, nodded, she too had tried to call her enegry back into herself, but felt as if it were being dragged from her with a savagry she'd never before experienced. She trembled as the ghostly children laughed, delighting in thier newfound tangibility. Gohan gasped and she quickly darted her eyes back to him, afraid of something else being added to thieir list of complications. 

Are you all right!? 

It...it's Piccolo! I don't believe it! I tried to call out to him...I wasn't sure I'd gotten through, past the barriers the children have placed in the way, I mean...

Piccolo? Who's...

She didn't have time to finish as the wall near he dresser and window was suddenly broken from outside, dust and glass and broken dresser, with doll parts flying along with everything else, flew into the room, knocking the startled children backwards. However, they did not lose hands nor break thier circle. Tayven's eyes widened as she swived her head to see the largest, _greenest_, man she'd ever, in her entire life, saw! She watched as he, scowling, took note of the encircled children, and their prisoners slowly fading out of reality in their center. 

"No!" Piccolo cried, crashing through the circle, breaking through linked arms and flinging the children aside as he rushed towards Gohan and Tayven. Almost as soon as the circle was broken, Tayven began to regain some feeling in her limbs. She looked at her arms wrapped about Gohan and saw that they were solid once more. Without waiting for an explantion, Piccolo grabbed both Tayven and Gohan by the scruff of thier clothing and flew them at once out of that house and away from it's influence. 

Dropping them both on the ground, Piccolo glared at Gohan for being so foolish. Tayven tried to stand, lost her balance and fell back to the ground. Sitting on the ground, trying to regain some of her motor skills, she listened to Piccolo and Gohan discuss what had happened. Then, they turned to her and she was introduced to the namekian, who scowled darkly at her through ebony-hued eyes. 

"What was with that place?" Gohan asked, "I mean, those kids...Who are they?" 

"I think a better question would be," They turned to see Bulma approaching them, "Who _were_ they?" 


	4. Fly Away

**__**

(A/N: To answer a question posed by one of my reviewers; Tayven is 17 years old.)

Tayven turned her face towards the blue haired woman and looked her at with the exact same question that was forming upon the lips of those around her. "Bulma...do you know anything about this...?" 

Instead of answering, she spun in a slow circle, her fingers on her chin, deep in thought. What she was contempulating was ludicrous, wasn't it? She was a scientist for Kami's sake! And yet, and yet if she hadn't remembered those old newspaper articals she'd ran across on the 'net during one of her research projects... 

"There is something foul about that place." Piccolo said, almost to himself. He stood a little ways apart from them, emotionally as well as physically. Gohan, Bulma and Tayven turned to regard him expectantly, "Didn't you guys feel the...negative...energy in that place?" 

Gohan looked down at his shoes, shuffling his feet as his cheeks turned red. "I...wasn't paying attention, I just wanted to have some fun and I dared her to go touch the house and..." 

Tayven stood up now that her legs seemed able to hold her. She crossed her arms over her small chest and listened the exchange between the namek and the half-saiyan with no little amount of interest. 

Piccolo snapped; "Gohan! How could you not be paying attention!? The enegry from that place was so great it may as well have been made of fire!" 

"Piccolo-san, I'm sorry, I..." 

"Enough!" Bulma spun around, hands on her hips, her blue eyes looking more than a little frightened, "That house is still standing and as long as it stands whatever is inside is a danger to all of us! I need to get back to Capsule Corp and try to find out more about those...whatever they were...entities..." 

They watched Bulma walk back to her bike, pick it up and start it. Amidst of cloud of dust, she took off, heading back towards her house to get started on figuring out how to handle this. Tayven was just about to turn around and start walking the way Bulma had gone when she felt a hand upon her shoulder, stopping her. Turning around, she found herself staring at the lighter blue of the sash about Piccolo's waist. That was where her eyes were level. Backing up a step, in as much to look up at his face as to put some distance between them, she waited. 

"Who are you?" He asked her, his voice low, rumbling like thunder, "Where did you come from?" 

Tayven narrowed her eyes. She hated being put on the spot like this. "I don't have to answer to you!" She turned and started to walk away, her dark hair flying in the breeeze of her wake. She'd gotten no more that three yards when he was in front of her again. She nearly ran smack into him and stumbled backwards suddenly. 

"I asked you a question." He said, his arms folded across his chest, looking down on her, "Answer me." 

"Why should I?" She knew she was being a brat, but she didn't care. She'd just been though an ordeal and was in no mood to be polite. All she wanted was a warm shower and bed. In that order. She was too tired to even considering eating. "Are you going to make me?" 

"If it comes to that." 

"Her name is Tayven," Gohan said, interrupting the altercation, "She's staying at Capsule Corp. I think Vegeta's training her." 

"Hmm," Piccolo said, "That would explain the additude..." 

"Bite me, Green Bean!" 

"But I find it odd," Piccolo said, his eyes flickering, the only sign that he'd heard, and didn't appreciate, Tayven's outburst, "That this just decided to happen when she shows up." 

"Hey!" Tayven cried, hands on her hips, "I didn't do anything! I've never seen that stupid house in all my life!" 

"I don't think she had anything to do with this," Gohan said, "She seemed just as surprised as I was to find it there." 

Suddenly exhausted, she turned and started to walk away. Only, her legs were acting up again. With a sigh she felt her knees buckle and found the ground suddenly closer to her face than she'd remembered it being. She looked up to see Piccolo and Gohan standing over her, looking down at her. She hated feeling so weak and struggled to rise again. She got half-way up, her strength left her and she crumbled once more to the ground. 

"Don't try to stand up, Tayven." Piccolo said, kneeling down and placing a hand upon her brow, his palm felt warm and leathery, "Those...creatures...drained a ton of engery from you. You need timet to rest and recover." 

"T-then...why isn't he tired?" She asked in a half-whisper, her eyes starting to droop, _damn it! Can't sleep now! How pathetic is that!? _She struggled with herself but her vision was blurring. She barely heard Piccolo's reply; something about Gohan being to recover faster due to his training and being part saiyan and whatnot. Darkness claimed her as swiftly as throwing a wet blanket over a flickering candle, casting her world into blackness. 

~*~*~

She woke up sometime later to someone tugging off all the covers from her body. In the chill of the room Tayven shivered and tried to bury into the mattress. _How'd I get here? _She thought, confusion like a muddy handprint over her mind. She opened her eyes a crack and noticed she wore the same see-through blue nightshift she'd worn the other night. Laying on her side, her knees up to her chin, she groaned and tried to reach, blindly, for the blankets she knew much be nearby. _I probably just kicked them off..._

"Get up." 

She opened her eyes again and, as they came into focus, saw Vegeta standing at the foot of her bed, holding the bunched up blankets and sheets in one fist, glaring down at her. "You've slept long enough. We have work to do. You have five minutes." 

Tayven sat up and watched him leave. _Five minutes? Is he nuts?! _She jumped up and took a quick, very quick, shower. Upon walking back into the main bedroom she noticed a capsule laying alone on the empty dressertop. Curious, she picked it up and tossed it down, after the initial 'poofing' she saw that it had contained clothing. Training clothing to be exact. Much like what she'd seen Goku wearing, only they were dark blue instead of orange. 

Well, She thought as she pulled them on, _Probably easier to move than in a tee-shirt and jeans... _

He was waiting for her outside with no little amount of impatience. Without a word, her rounded on her and grabbed her roughly, pulling her towards him before taking off into the sky. It all happened so fast she didn't have time to be nervous. She'd flown before, with Goku and a short distance with Gohan up the stairs in that house they'd stumbled across, but the speed at wich Vegeta now flew with her took her breathe away. Before she had time to ask where he was taking her, they'd landed. 

Looking around, she saw that they were standing on a stretch of flatland, a small bush here and there but for the most part there was nothing in sight for what seemed like miles. A type of bird cawed and flew past overhead and lazy white puffs of cloud moved at no great rush across the azure morning sky. She thought she could glimpse rock formations in the distance, shadowing the horizon. It was very peaceful, to say the least. 

That was, until Vegeta decided that she'd had enough time to gawk at the sencery and began the day's lesson in full. 

"Your still not trying hard enough," He said, after knocking her down for the uptenth time that morning, "Your not using all your senses, Tayven..." 

"I can't get at you to attack you," She cried, brushing dirt off her chest and wiping her face on her arm, "Your too strong for me..." 

"So, your smaller and lighter," He said, "Use what you've got." 

"It's too hard!" She cried, panting, "I.." 

"What?" He paused, standing slightly above her, "A little difficulty and you want to throw in the towel? Is that it?" 

Anger flashed across her features once more and she jumped to her feet, fists clenched, falling back into the stance he'd taught her the other day. "I'm not giving up!" 

"And I'm not going to go easy on you." He said, smirking, "Now, come at me again." 

It was late afternoon when they'd finally stopped. Her breath coming out fast, Tayven felt her hair sticking to her forehead and the skin beneath the training gi she wore felt hot and damp. She knew without having a mirror to see herself that her face was a mess, grim-covered with a bloody lip. She had bruises forming on her arms and legs and other parts of her body as well. 

Vegeta looked none the worse for wear, just a few traces of dirt in his hair and a smudge across his left cheek. He raised a gloved hand and wiped the dirt away, turning to look at her. 

"You did better than yesterday," He said, and lifted himself into the air, "I'll be at Capsule Corp when you get back." 

"Wait!" She cried, realizing he was about to leave her...Kami knows where...all alone, "You can't just leave me here in the middle of nowhere! How am I suppose to get back?!" 

From his new vantage point, he looked down at her, cocked an eyebrow and said, "Learn to fly." 

With those words, her teacher left her, flying back the way they had first came. Tayven fumed for a few moments, looking around her desperatly, needing something to rage against. Finding nothing but a sticker plant she stood there, clenching and unclenching her fists by her sides, her face blotchy from temper. Finally, realizing how foolish she probably looked, her anger died down and deflated altogether. 

Learn to fly? She thought, _How the hell am I soppose to do that? _

She sat down, cross-legged on the ground, the sun was hot and beat down upon her unmercifully. Being dark-haired, she felt the warmth more intently as darker colors drew in and captured the heat. She smoothed her hair off her forehead and reached around to lift it from her sticky neck, the soft breeze caressing her flesh and cooling her down somewhat. She toyed with the idea of just getting up and walking, just leaving everything and heading back to the city. She could find a new place to live, start over. 

Yeah, and with what money? Her betraying thoughts asked, _Or are you ready to start hookin', Tay? _

Shuddering at the thought, she sighed and turned her attention to the task at hand. 

He said it had to do with ki... She thought, playing with an idea that was slowly forming it's way around her mind, _I wonder..._

Standing up, Tayven began to do what she'd done ealier, when Vegeta'd first show her how to bring her own ki up to the forefront of her mind and body. She imagined a ball of light, (last time she thought of clay being as she was an artist and raw materials needed to create things came most easy to her mind during visualizations), starting at the center of her chest and spreading outward, to fill her entire body, down her legs and upwards through her arms to her fingertips. 

Concentrating, she visualized herself being lifted, carried, yet still within her control. 

A sensation like a jet of air wooshed across her body as she felt her feet no longer touching the hardness of the ground beneath them. She focused on keeping herself afloat in the air, feeling the strength of her ki as it braced and held her, circling her body like an invisible bubble of sorts. Smiling, she looked down and saw that she was a few feet off the ground. 

Proud, she let her mind wander for a moment, thinking of the look of astonishment on the face of her teacher when she returned to show him she'd learned this trick so fast. However, almost as soon as she became to daydream, she lost control and felt the ki flowing backwards into her center and fell with a cry to back to the ground, smacking her knees against the earth painfully. 

Moaning in ire, Tayven stood up and tried again. Several long minutes passed. They could have been hours for all she knew. Hot, sweaty, dirty, her anger had been replaced by the need to complete something and that, in turn, had changed to frustration and finally, when she found that she could not only stay afloat but actually find direction, grudging satifation at her accomplishment. Taking off towards where she'd seen Vegeta fly, she pictured a stocked fridge and Bunny Briefs' homecooking. 


	5. Bad Dreams

Tayven found Capsule Corp and lowered herself to the ground. She had never made a landing on her own before and ended up ass over teakettle to say the least, the shrubberies around the house stopping her momentum. She pulled herself upright, brushed herself off and turned around. She was so tired. She just wanted to go lay down. Vegeta was in his gravity room, she could tell by the blinking light which warned people of it's use. She walked in to hear Bulma screaming about something. 

She realized too late it had to do with the broken computer. She wondered, briefly, how she'd just now noticed it's condition. But then, Bulma was a busy woman who often ate in her office or lab, or sometimes, if she were really occupied with something, forgot to eat altogether. 

"Mother! Did you see this?!" She cried, and Tayven tried to sneak past them to her room, not wishing to cause any more trouble, or be the brunt of the blue-haired woman's rage. But a hand on the back of her should stilled her movents and she knew she'd have to face the music. "Did Vegeta do this?!" 

"No." He said from behind Tayven, shoving her into the kitchen where Bunny was backed against the counter, a vacent smile on her lips, as always, it seemed her daughter's flashes of temper failed to inspire much out of her, "Tayven has something she'd like to say to you, woman." 

"What?!" Bulma rounded on the girl, her hair wild, her face livid, "Do you have anything to do with this?" 

"I..I..." Tayven started, to herself she scolded; _Stop being such a wimp, Tayven! She's not going to bite you for kami's sake! Just tell her the truth! You've stood up to worse than her before! _"I broke it, Bulma, I'm sorry...I didn't mean to..." 

"Well," Bulma paused, turned around and looked at the broken computer, "That's all right." 

Tayven blinked. Did she just hear her correctly? She'd broken a very expensive computer and all she could say was 'that's all right.'? What was wrong with that woman anyway? Tayven waited for the other shoe to drop, for Bulma to tell her to leave. Now. She started to go through her mind the places she could go and who she knew who could help her. Which, in reality, were probably no one save the church, and of course, those streetwalkers she'd seen. Neither of which appealed to her much. 

"I can fix it," Bulma was saying, "It just needs a new monitor, the actual computer wasn't damaged by your outburst. If you want to continue to stay here you must learn to control your temper, young lady." 

The way Bulma called her 'young lady' made Tayven feel about six years old. It always did when an adult called her that. She couldn't stand being called that. It was what her mother used to call her. She blocked and thoughts about her past from her head and nodded at Bulma, promising to be more mindful of her surroundings and whatnot. Satisfied, Bulma mumbled something about working on the broken computer and went to fetch her tools. Tayven turned to look at Vegeta with a look of accusation in her eyes; 

"You didn't have to tell her it was me, you know." 

"I didn't," He said, standing with one hand on his hip, leaning against the wall, "You did."

Tayven brushed past him and headed to her room, too tired to even quarrel. 

She didn't even get undressed or scoot under the covers. Someone, she guessed it was Bunny, had made up her bed complete with hospital corners. Sitting down on the bed, she let her head fall to the pillow and closed her eyes, sleep taking her almost at once as she found herself adrift in a world of swirling, black, disturbing dreams. 

She was at the strange house again. Alone. Looking around she saw the sky was dark, the edges around her vision seemed out of focus, as it often was in dreams. She stood at the front door, looking up at it. It seemed to tower over her small form unnaturally large and mis-shapen. The gentle curve of the doorhandle jutted out and seemed to taunt her, calling, whispering; "Turn me, pull me, turn me, pull me." 

R

eaching out with trembling hands, Tayven touched the doorknob and found it warm, and, as if it were alive, it pulsed in her grip. She turned it slowly, pulling the door open as she did so. 

The house's foyer and the room, the livingroom with the old staircase she and Gohan had seen, seemed to swim before her vision until it dissolved and reformed into the livingroom of her childhood home. White-washed walls, blue cornflower blue carpeting, cream and blue checked funiture and several photos in frames of family members along the walls above the sofa. 

Unsure what was happening, but taking it at face value, she stepped into the room and felt herself regressing back to her six year old self. She saw her mother standing over her, her face red, her tangle of auburn hair frizzy atop her head. She looked like a horrid monster enormous, standing over her with her green eyes flashing. 

In her hand she held something. Tayven tried to see what. Her mother showed her. A broken vase. Tayven remembered. She'd been running through the house, pretending to fly by bouncing on the furnture, being a normal kid, and had accidently fallen from the sofa onto the end table, knocking over the crystal vase in the process. She'd tried to hide the offending pieces from her mother. 

But her mother was keen eyed and knew exactly when something wasn't right, or what was missing in her overly-clean little house. 

Tayven shrank back from those eyes, those hard, glittering eyes at seemed to bore into her. She looked around for her father. Her father would protect her. Her mother never lost her temper with her when he was around. But her father was not there, she recalled, he was at work. He'd been gone for another five hours. 

She whimpered as her mother pointed a finger at her, shaking it and scolding her at the same time; "How stupid can you be, girl?!" She said, her voice grating on Tayven's nerves as it always had, "Did I raise such a clumsy, stupid ugly daughter that she thinks she can go and break MY things and try to hide it from ME?! Well?" 

"Mamma...please...I didn't mean to..." Six year old Tayven sniffled and winced as her mother continued to scream and throw names at her as if she were less worthless than the dirt at the bottoms of her feet. "Mamma, please..." 

"Stupid...worthless..." Her mother raged, striking the side of the wall with her ham-like fist and sending the pictures jiggling, "I should have aborted you the moment I found out I was pregnant! You're nothing but a waste, girl! You hear me, a waste!" 

"Stop it!" Tayven cried, covering her ears and falling down upon the ground, folding herself up as tears streamed her cheeks as her mother's cruel barrage continued above her, "Stop it! Stop it!" 

"Nothing but a waste! A waste!" She sniffled, realized her mother's voice had changed, altered, become more than one, changed timbre as well. She looked up to see something that made her blood run cold and a scream lodged in her throat. Children, teenagers and few younger ones, stood around her, laughing and taunting her with her mother's words, pointing accusing fingers down at her. 

They're faces were pale, transparent, hair hanging over thier features like seaweed, dark and tangled. They're mouths gaped like toothless black holes and thier eyes...thier eyes were only empty sockets, sightless and horrid all at once. 

Tayven scooted backwards, trying to get away from them as they began to laugh harder at her and used her mother's image to force her into complete and utter terror. 

Screaming, Tayven flung herself from the bed, the act of hitting the hard floor finally jarring her awake. Panting she looked around, the tears she'd wept in her nightmare still coarsed down her cheeks. Suddenly, the door to her room burst open and she looked up, still half-asleep, expecting her nightmare visions to be standing there, ready to devour her sanity. Instead, it was Vegeta, a look of annoyance and fear mingled across his features as he looked down at her on the floor by the bed. 

He took in the rumbled bedding, her tear streaked face and violent shivering and realized that she'd had a nightmare. He turned to leave and she cried out, her voice husky from screaming; "Don't go. Please..." 

"You've just had a bad dream," He said, "Go back to sleep. I'll see you in the morning." 

"No!" Tayven cried, she didn't know why but she felt something bad would happen if she were left alone again. She feared difting back to sleep. She feared what dreams may come. "Just sit with me for a little bit, please. It's not like I'm asking you to read me a bedtime story for Kami's sake!" 

Sighing in aggravation, Vegeta sat down on the side of the bed as she pulled herself up and crawled under the covers. She suddenly felt like a very small girl and wanted someone to hold her and tell her things were going to be all right. She chewed her lip and thought of her father. He could always make things seem less harsh than they were...that was, until her bouts of temper got to even him as she grew older and one day, he began to side with her mother on things concerning her. 

"What did you dream about?" He asked, more out of boredom than anything else. He didn't look at her and she took a little time in answering. When she told him of her nightmare he listened without speaking. She thought he'd forgotten she was there after she's stopped talking and he just sat there, staring ahead, not even blinking. Finally, he turned to her and said; "That house you and son brat found...it has something to do with your nightmare." 

Tayven nodded, she'd thought of that as well. She watched him thinking for a moment and became scared when sleep tried to claim her. She fought it off with desperation, uncaring that she'd been less than useful in the morning if she didn't get some rest. Vegeta noticed this and told her that she shouldn't try to fight off sleep when she body so readily needed it. 

"I...I'm scared to fall alseep!" She cried, "I don't want to see them again...ever!" 

"I thought you told me you weren't scared of anything?" He reminded her, but she merely shook her head, too frightened to rise to one of his barbs. Sighing, realizing the girl was really too upset to goad, he said, his voice uncharatisically soft; "Go to sleep, Tayven. Don't worry. I won't leave you. I'll wake you if you look to having any more bad dreams." 

Tayven looked at him as if she didn't believe he'd keep his word. Vegeta narrowed his eyes at her and told her again to go to sleep. "I don't say things I don't mean. I gave you my word, I won't leave you, now stop looking at me like that and go to sleep. I want you rested up before we begin your lesson tomorrow. You'll be no good otherwise." 

Closing her eyes, she curled up under the covers and allowed the darkness of slumber to capture her once more. She wasn't sure if it were Vegeta's presence at her bedside that kept the dreams at bay, or if it were simple the feeling she had of being suddenly protected, but either way, the rest of the night she slept peacefully until morning. 


	6. Waking Nightmares

Days faded into weeks, Tayven focused on her training, finding her teacher tougher than nails and twice as hard to fathom, although his method of teaching often left her close to tears, she could not deny that she felt as if she were gaining something she'd never even known was missing. It was an odd experience. At night, she was too tired to dream and of that she was more than thankful. 

The old house still stood where she'd first stumbled across it, lonesome and brooding, as it it merely waited for her return. She never had any intention of returning. Tayven would stay far from it had the choice been her's. But, like most things in her life, she was rarely given the choice when fate decides to interfere. 

She gazed around, not certain where she was. Looking down at herself, she saw that she was dressed in the more modest tee-shirt and shorts Bulma had bought for her that she'd gone to bed in. Confusion and fear sped her heart as she felt the cool ground beneath bare feet and the breeze tossling her hair about her shoulders. _What was going on? _She wondered, glancing back towards where she could just make out the roofs of Capsule Corp's main buildings. _Where...? _She paused when she heard it. Laughter. Children's laughter. 

A chill ran up and down her spine as the clouds moved aside the moon momentarily to reveal to her the faded white picket fence. Her hands reached out, unbidden, and touched the fence, still hearing that odd, broken, high-pitched laughter. 

__

I wonder what's so funny, She thought with that part of her brain that remains stand-offish even when the rest of herself was terrified. _Okay, Tay, snap out of it. This is just a dream. Wake up now. _

She pinched herself to wake herself up but nothing happened. Save for the pain in her arm where she'd pulled roughly at her skin. "Ouch...jeez...I've never felt pain in a dream before..." 

That's because your not dreaming, Tayven. 

She spun around, a scream caught in her throat, falling into the fighting stance Vegeta'd taught her automatically, fists balled and her body tense. She glanced around, feeling for anything threatening. All she could hear was the pounding of her heart between her ears as her breath came out in sharp takes. Even the laughter had died off, as if waiting. 

"Who's there?!" She cried, "Show yourself!" 

No need to shout, Tayven. The voice was inside her head, she realized, blinking, and 

yet...yet it seemed she could hear it aloud as well, it was more than unnerving, _I'm right here. I've always been here, had you the mind to realize it. We have been waiting for you. _

"W-why...?" She gulped, righting herself, her body no longer poised to attack, how can you attack something you can't see or feel? But no less tense than before, "Who are you?" 

They appeared around her, suddenly, unsolicited, drawing her into the center of their circle. Tayven felt a surge of dread mixed with a feeling of history repeating itself. Just before the link could be completed, a vision rose before her, inbetween the children. She gasped at what she saw, cringing away in horror. 

The woman before her smiled, yet her eyes remained hard, glittering green jewels, her auburn hair frizzy upon her head and her bulk towered over the girl, who'd suddenly forgotten that she was seventeen years old and not a little girl any more. 

This is the image we have pulled from your mind, The voice continued, funny, Tayven thought, it did not sound either male or female. A curious mix of both. _It is an image that inspires the most...emotion...from you. Why is that? _

Tayven was beyond hearing. She flinched away from her mother's large hand, tears streaking down her cheek, backing away slowly. Her backside came near to one of the children's linked arms and something that felt like a jolt of electricity shot up her spine, sending her back to the center and sprawling her at the image of her mother's feet. The woman picked up her feet before Tayven could touch them, she saw that the image was even dressed in a flowering house-coat and slippers with a cigarette burn in one toe as she often dressed around the house when Tayven was little. 

"Get up off your knees, you filthy little creature!" The woman screamed in Tayven's mother's horse voice, "You pathetic girl! Can't you do anything right? I told you to clean that disgusting room of yours, Tayven! I should be made a saint for putting up with you, you know? Your father thinks you hang the moon, doesn't he? He doesn't know the truth, does he, girl? He doesn't know how stupid and ugly you really are..." 

"No!" Tayven cried, tears blinding her as she curled upon the ground, her body racked with sobs, "Mamma, please! Don't say that! Don't say that...I love you, Mamma, I love you..." 

"You love me?! How pathetic." The woman yelled, screaming down at Tayven's trembling form, "Look at you! Too scared to stand up and face me! How did I get _blessed _with such a daughter? It's enough to make me puke! You hear me! Look at me when I talk to you!" 

Tayven looked up, reluctantly, sniffling, feeling her heart cracking as it had so many years before. "Mamma...please...Why?" She cried, not understanding how her mother could be so cruel when she had always done her best to make her mother proud and love her, "I don't understand..." 

"Of course you don't," Her mother said, glaring, "Because your too stupid to understand. I thought we went over this before." 

"I'm not stupid, Mamma!" Tayven cried, covering her head with her face and sobbing, she did not see the children drawing nearer, reaching out, starting to tap into her hidden reserves of strengh, her essence, and begin to pull the power from her. She felt a tingling sensation at the pit of her stomach and realized, belatedly, what was happening. 

But she could not break free of the nightmare which placed her in her six-year-old self's form facing her livid mother. For her, everthing faded out and became smaller until the world began and ended with herself curled upon the ground mentally trying to dodge her mother's posion-tipped verbal arrows. Arrows that perced to the heart more often than not. 

~*~*~

"Mmm..." Bulma rolled over in bed. It was late, but the light from outside and the stillness around her, "Vegeta...what's wrong?" She realized he wasn't asleep, but laying beside her, his breath held, body rigid. He let out the breath he'd been holding and sprang out of bed so fast she hardly saw his body move from the soft mattress to the floor. 

"What?" 

"Go back to sleep." He said to her, pulling on his clothes. In a hurry, Bulma saw. She did not obey him, instead she got up as well and reached for her robe hanging on the bedroom door. She had barely got her arms into the sleeves when he rushed by and sped down the stairs faster than she could keep up. She called out to him, but he either didn't hear or choose to ignore her. Probably the latter, she thought, sitting down on the edge of the bed, a feeling of trepidation entering her chest. 

~*~*~

Damn that girl! He thought as he took off into the air, feeling the rise of her ki as a buzzing in his head, the nearer she was the louder the buzzing, _Didn't she have enough sense not to go wandering around after everyone's asleep? Maybe she was sleepwalkng... _

He came to a stop near the roof of the old victorian house, his eyes narrowing dangerously at what he saw. Tayven was there all right, of that he'd had little doubt. He could see her from his height, looking like a small curled little girl huddled into herself on the ground, shivering. For a moment, he thought she was alone, but he blinked as several sources of light began to form and glow around her, one large light-source standing over her, seeming to mock and torment her. 

Tayven's shuddering voice rose upwards where his keen saiyan ears caught it easily. She whispered; "Stop it...please...no...it's not true...It's not true..." 

Without thinking, Vegeta dove downwards and formed a ki ball between his palms, letting

the power form and grow, adding his anger to the mix. Screaming a gutteral cry, he let it fly towards the largest of the things threatening the girl, expecting to see her thrown back as the blast exploded on contact with her. Instead, the creature, whom he could see now was shaped vaugly like a female, a rather large lumpish female, laughed as his blast was dissolved into her middle as if it did no more than tickle her. 

"What?!" He cried, "How dare you!?"

Tayven was vaugly aware that something was going on, but she could feel the pressure placed on her by the image of her mother, who had somehow gotten stronger, she didn't know how, and could not look up. She heard tittering all around her and Vegeta's voice as if from far off, yelling words at those surrouding her that would have made her ears red had she not heard them a million times all ready growing up and on the streets. 

Vegeta, dark brows drawn over eyes that flashed like a thunderstorm, felt the ki build up inside himself as he launched a series of blasts too fast for the human eye to follow at the woman standing over Tayven. He was brought up short as, once again, she seemed to pull his blasts into herself as if they were nothing. Frustrated, he flew downwards and swung his fist in the direction of her face. 

Tayven choose that moment to look up. She saw Vegeta's face, wild with fury, his fist flying out towards her mother's face...no...she shook her head...that wasn't her mother...going right through as if she wasn't even there. The woman laughing at him. Vegeta growing more and more angry. He hated being laughed at. 

Tayven didn't know what to do, but she didn't want to just run away. There must be something she could do to help...but the woman was looking at her again, pointing. Tayven ducked her head and looked at her feet, ashamed for no reason she could name. Her mother's looks and pointing finger could always make her feel that way. 

"W-what are you?!" She heard Vegeta cry as he panted from his efforts at inflicting harm, any harm. "No...it can't be...y-your dead..." 

Tayven snapped her head up just in time to see Vegeta backing away, still airbound, from the woman who looked like her mother to her. She'd never seen Vegeta look so...frightened? Was he scared? No, it didn't seem possible...and yet...he was looking at the creature before him as if it were something from his worst nightmare. "Your dead! Your dead!" He kept screaming, his face red and his body trembling, "This isn't real!" 

Tayven couldn't understand what he was yelling about as she was sure he'd never seen her mother before in his life and the last time she knew, her mother was alive and well. What was he going on about then? 

"Vegeta! Tayven!" Tayven looked and saw Bulma rushing over, she was wearing a pink bathrobe and slippers, her blue hair tossled. She screamed; "Break away from it! Listen to me! You have to fight back! It's just an illusion, Vegeta! It's not real! Tayven, come away from there!" 

"I...I can't!" Tayven sniffled, calling, "Mamma will punish me if I'm bad..." 

"I have to kill him!" Vegeta cried, powering up, "I have to make sure he stays dead!" 

"Tayven, she's not your mother!" Bulma cried, trying desperatly to get through to them. She tried to push her way into the circle, but was thrown backwards by a force stronger than she could bear; "Vegeta! Stop! Listen to me! You have to get away from there!" 

Tayven felt as if someone had placed spiderwebs inside her head and over her eyes. She struggled to clear them away and pulled herself up from the ground. She looked down at herself, saw that her body wasn't a little girl's and became confused. What was going on? Where was Mamma's vase? The one she'd broken...

No...wait...She stopped, realization striking her like a blow across the face. That happened years ago! She wasn't six years old anymore, dammit! Anger flashed across her features as she thought of how easily she'd been played. She looked up and saw Vegeta had almost finished powering up, a blue-ish aura cracked around him and stirred anything in it's path into a kind of windstorm, blowing her hair back from her face and rippling her clothing. 

He was standing closer to the ground now, she noticed, as the wind continued to wail around him. She cried out as a peice of wood from the house smacked her across the shoulder. Without thinking, she ran behind him and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him away and out of the circle. She thought maybe with his help they could break free. A sudden growl as he glanced at her from over his shoulder and a savage backhand across her face sent her flying. 

She'd broken out of the circle, the children were stunned for a moment and had lost concentration, just not in the way she'd planned. Landing on top of Bulma, she quickly scambled up, the side of her face stung horribly and she wouldn't be at all surprised if he'd fractured her cheekbone. She tasted blood on her lip from where it dripped out of the cut along her face. 

"Vegeta!" Bulma cried. "Please...You have to stop!" 

Tayven, wiping the back of her hand across her face, looked to see the children seemed to be growing stronger and Vegeta looked to be about to explode. He did not realize that the more power he showed, the stronger they become. Tayven was about to tell him that before he struck her. He was lost to the illusions, she knew, she also knew that if they didn't find a way to stop this that something very, very bad was going to happen.


	7. Children's Hour

Tayven covered her arm over her face as Vegeta's power flared upwards and all about. She heard him screaming as the force built up around him, his whole body tensing with concentration. She became aware of movement behind her and turned to see Goku flying over to them. Gohan was following, a look of horror on his face. Bulma cried out something to Goku and ducked as more peices of the house flew at her. 

"Oh, Kami!" Gohan cried, landing next to Tayven, "We've got to stop him!" 

"I don't know how!" She cried, having to yell to be heard over Vegeta's yelling and the rushing of the wind, "Oh...Gohan...look!" 

The ghostly children linked around Vegeta and the woman-figure had begun to dissolve into slivers of light, growing more and more thin. For a moment Tayven thought that they were weakening and nearly cried out with happiness. Bulma shouted something that sounded like; "Yes! They're losing! Vegeta!" 

"No," Goku said, his voice low, his fists clenched and his body ready to attack, "Don't celebrate yet, Bulma..." 

Tayven couldn't believe her eyes as one by one the slivers of light flew up and into Vegeta's glowing form. His thrown back, hair wild and teeth bared, a many-voiced howl issued from his throat, causing those around to shiver in primal fear. Remember the very bad something that they had been afraid of? 

Well, this was it. 

The image of the woman was the last to dissolve and flew into Vegeta's open mouth, lighting him up even more than he all ready was from the inside. In fact, Tayven found, looking directly at him hurt her eyes. Light was shooting out of every one of his orifices, blinding them. He turned towards them she heard Bulma scream and Goku gasp. Tayven felt her blood run cold in her viens. 

His face was devoid of any emotion and his eyes. They weren't the normal black she'd become familar with. No. They were white and pupiless. Soulless for all that he now held about ten souls inside of himself. 

"At last we are free!" His voice was not his own, it was the voice of the children, she knew, and the one adult amongst thier number, "Free!" 

"No!" Goku shouted, launching himself suddenly at Vegeta, letting loose with a series of punches to the shorter saiyan's face and torso, "Get out of him!" 

Vegeta did not even try to block Goku's attack. He merely waited until the other had paused before raising his hand and, using just his index finger and thumb, flicked Goku in the chest. Goku went flying and crashed into the side of the house, bricks and panelling falling all over. Bulma had started to run back to her bike, scared. Tayven felt her leave but did not think to call her back. Gohan saw his father flung aside like a sack of trash and flew over to him, calling out his name frantically. 

She ran over to them and started to help Gohan uncover his father from the fallen bricks, 

"Dad!" Gohan cried, as Goku stood up, brushed himself off and glared upwards. Gohan turned to glare at Vegeta, screaming; "Monster! I'll kill you!" Just before he could take off and try exactly what his father had, Tayven grabbed his arm. She knew he could break free of her with a simple tug, but he looked at her expectantly. 

"Gohan, that's not Vegeta!" She hissed, "Listen to me! It's those...those things inside him making him act like this! He's too powerful right now!" 

Gohan shrugged her off, shooting into the air, ignoring her cries, "Gohan! No! Don't!" 

"Stupid infants!" The voices inside Vegeta yelled as he sent Gohan spinning backwards with one blow, "I waste my time here! I have places to go...people to kill! But first...." 

Before any of them could do anything, he pointed a finger towards the old house and a beam shot out, exploding on contact with the house, sending them all flying backwards away from it. It continued to burst outwards until it was raining down rubble. 

Tayven coughed and covered her eyes, smoke and flying dirt stinging them. When she got herself under control, she realized, Vegeta was gone. 

Goku was helping Gohan up and they looked upwards as if they could still see him even though the sky was empty save for the few stars that blinked in the night sky. 

"W-where did he go?" Tayven asked, it hurt to talk, her face felt like it were broken, which it probably was. "Guys?" 

~*~*~

Not a breeze stirred to distrub him, yet he knew something was not right. Floating several feet above the ground, the desert spread out before him and the rock walls of his cave shelter behind him, Piccolo tensed in his meditations. He'd felt something....something wild and indiscribible ripple across his thoughts. His antenna twitched slightly against the material of his white weighted turban and dark eyes flashed. All at once he _knew. _

"Vegeta!" His voice was a croak, barely audable. He rose into a standing position and departured at once towards the the odd, garbled yet so very strong ki signature he knew was the Saiyan Prince's. Whatever was going on, he knew that it wasn't pleasant. He had also seen those odd children in his meditations and knew that there was something more than sinister about them. 

As he flew his mind drifted, without his meaning it to yet unable to stop it nonetheless, back towards the last few hours of his meditation. He'd fallen into the altered state as easily as his many centuries of practice could make it, feeling the world give away around him as he found his own, inner being. 

He looked around, forgetting he was inside his own mind, a feeling of uncertainty drawing the breath out of his lungs. A million thoughts and emotions suddenly came crashing into his brain, making the namek cry out and claw at his head, to no avail. He saw his father's face, that evilness he was the re-incarnation of, in all the images. Laughing manically and pointing at him, telling him he was a failure. A complete and utter disgrace. 

"No!" Piccolo screamed, "Leave me alone! I'm not you! I'm not you!" 

"Are you sure about that, Piccolo, my son?" Came his father's voice, "Look at you! You have evilness inside. You **are** evil! Give in to it!" 

"No!" Piccolo growled, wrenching his gaze away from those horrid eyes. "I told you, I'm not you! I'll never be you again!" 

It was then he'd noticed the shadows flanking him. Small. They seemed only partially-grown humanoids from what he could see. They were laughing softly and drawing closer, holding out thier hands. With an effort, Piccolo jerked himself out of his trance, blinking back uncharacterisic tears before they could fall. 

Piccolo snapped himself back into the present when he heard the scream. It sounded like a woman. He realized the scream had come from Capsule Corp and flew at breakneck speed to get there. He could feel Vegeta's ki stronger now so he knew that he was at Capsule Corp. He was brought up short by what he saw. Vegeta, hovering in place above the yellow-domed buildings had been throwing horrible blasts at the place, brick and mortar, plasture and wood exploded outward in the assault. 

Bulma, holding onto baby Trunks and her mother crouched on the ground behind Vegeta, crying loudly. Piccolo saw several small animals racing to get away and Bulma's father trying to sheild the girls with own, feeble body as wood and peices of the building flew everywhere. 

Tayven watched from a distance, standing, Piccolo noticed, with her fists clenching and unclenching along with her teeth as her eyes remained wide with fear. She looked as if she wanted to do something but did not know exactly what. She literally bounced on her heels. 

"Piccolo!" Goku cried, behind him, Gohan was there as well, grabbing a hold of Tayven's arm just as the girl would have thrown herself upwards in an attempt to get at and stop Vegeta, "It's bad. Those things..." 

"I know." Piccolo said, between clasped teeth, "I've felt them. Seen them. They've

taken him over." 

"Oh, Vegeta!" Bunny cried, sobbing, "Bulma, why is he doing this?! Why?!" 

"H-he's destroying our home..." Mr. Briefs whispered, "If we hadn't got out in time..." 

Little Trunks was wailing at the top of his lungs. No matter what she did to try and calm him, the child was reacting to the fear he felt from her as well as his own fear as his world came tumbling down. Tayven, still being restrained by Gohan, felt sorry for the kid, for all that she didn't like little kids. No child deserved to see his father like this. 


	8. More Trouble

This was too much! What was he doing? _But it felt good. So good to let loose like this, didn't it, Saiyan Prince? _The voice inside his head grated even as it seduced. From deep inside himself, the being that was Vegeta fought against bonds that could never have held him had they been of the real world. But, in dreams, cottoncandy could be made to have the strength of steel. 

The room inside his mind was dark, cold and devoid of anything remotely comforting. He was sititng on the floor, hands at his sides. Although he could move about, he could break through the barriers, around him like a transparent wall, shutting him within. He could see, as though watching from a television screen, what his physical self was doing and cringed even as he felt the surge of pleasure riding upwards into his body as he blasted Capsule Corp in oblivion. 

He heard the now-familair and so very hated laughter echoing all around him. He felt as if he were in a deep well or a cavern, the way the sound was bouncing around. "Get out of my body, you..." 

Don't be such a sorehead, Veggie! A child giggled, rushing up to make faces at him through the barrier. He snarled and lunged at her, but she was protected and knew it. The nine other children appeared, gawking and laughing. 

Isn't he funny, Mistress? 

Vegeta looked up to see a tall womanly figure. Different from the one he'd seen before. This one had pale, pale skin like alabastor, ebony eyes that had no light in them at all and a mouth like a red knife slash. Her hair was so white it was nearly translucent and rippled about her shoulders and down her back in a breeze of her own making. Though she was lacking in clothing, Vegeta did not find anything sexual about her at all. It was amost as if she were asexual, dispite being obviously female. 

She wasn't standing behind the barriers. Reaching down, she traced her finger along his jawline. Growling, Vegeta tried to move towards her, to hurt her. But cried out in shock as he realized he was being held in place. He couldn't move a muscle. Being thus only served to fuel his anger more. He screamed names at the woman and the children, who were gasping in shocked delight, that would have turned any normal person's hair white. 

Indeed, She agreed with the girl who'd spoken, _He's very strong. I can feel the power he carries. He is a suitable host. You all should be very pleased with yourselves. Half an hour of playtime until your training. _

A cheer went up and children started to babble amongst themselves. 

Go on now, your wasting time! She turned back to Vegeta and smiled, almost kindly, _Ah, such youth. It was really aweful about the way they came to me, you know, but..._

"Is some new kind of torture, bitch?" Vegeta snapped, "Force me to listen to your asinine drivel until I kill myself?" 

Oh, I highly doubt that you, the proud Saiyan Prince, could ever bring himself to take such...drastic measures. 

"No," Vegeta agreed, his eyes like cold steel, "I'd much rather stay alive and destroy you." 

Laughter like glass breaking echoed all around him. Finally she said; _Oh, you are going to be fun! You have spirit! But, you should know one thing. Destroying me won't be as easy as you might like. _

"It doesn't matter," He said, "I like a challenge." 

Good, She leered at him, folding her arms across her breasts, _So do I. _

~*~*~

"No! Vegeta! Stop!" Bulma screamed over the sounds of her baby crying, "Why won't he listen?!" 

Piccolo bared his teeth, hovering in mid-air, fists balled at his sides. His eyes were wide as a bead of sweat dripped from his brow beneath the turban he wore. His white cape fluttered out behind him in the wake of Vegeta's power. He could feel the enities inside the Saiyan Prince and knew, by more than the flicker of expression passing across Vegeta's face a moment ago, that the Saiyan was fighting his own inner battle...and not fairing very well. 

"M-Maybe I _did _start this..." Tayven whispered, still standing next to Gohan and Goku, "They never showed up 'til I did..." 

"Don't start thinking that!" Goku said, not looking at her, his eyes were on Vegeta, "Tayven, I have a feeling this...this evil has been lurking here for a long time..." 

"Yes!" Piccolo glanced at them over his shoulder, "Tayven, your negative emotions were enough to manifest the house and your and Gohan's power together when you were trapped inside of it became enough to give the entity strength enough to mentally attack us...." 

"You were attacked, Piccolo?" Gohan asked, "But you weren't near the house until the last second and..." 

"It attacked me in my meditations, Gohan," Piccolo said, "I believe it wanted to control me as it has done Vegeta but my mind is far too disciplined to fall for such a trick." 

Tayven listened to the exchange, her eyes on the ruined pile of rubble that was Capsule Corp as Vegeta finally stopped and turned around to face everyone. As he did so, she gasped, for she'd thought she'd seen a glimmer of his true _self _behind his eyes, but it was only there for a moment and was gone before she could say anything. Raising his arms outwards, an oddly female voice spoke from between his lips: 

Playtime, Children! 

Gasping, everyone watched as several thin whisps of white fog-like..._things..._flew out of Vegeta from everywhere on his body, making him writhe from the sensation and flew, one by one, into the others. Even as she shuddered at being taken over, she looked around and saw it happeneing to those around her. Piccolo, who'd looked shocked at first, went rigid in midair as one of the things entered him through his center and his eyes clouded over. 

A manical grin appeared on his face and when he straighteded up, he laughed, the others joining in, sounding much like a pack of demented hyenas. 

"Time for a little fun?" Goku smirked, "Mistress said we have a half an hour until training starts." 

"Yeah!" Gohan said, "What is there to _do _around here?" 

Tayven felt her power crackling around her, power she could now tap into fully with the entity guiding her actions; "I just wanna blow stuff up!" 

"Nothing wrong with that!" Piccolo laughed, powering up, "Let's go!" 

On the ground, Bulma and her parents watched with evil gleams in thier eyes. Bulma held Trunks tighter, for some reason he felt more like her doll than her son, something to carry around and perhaps play with later, and said to her parents; "Lets follow them! I want to see some action!" 

"Yes!" Bunny cried, "That does sound nice!" 

"Right behind you, Bulma, Dear!" 


	9. Games

The children were having the time of thier lives. People screamed and died, things were being destroyed. Utterly. The creature inside Vegeta fairly squealed with glee. This was her meat and milk! This was her reason for being! 

She held one frantically flailing weakling up the neck with Vegeta's hand in midair, manipulating his other into a fist and driving it into her victim's stomach before twisting his neck until she heard a sharp snap. Throwing the lifeless body onto the heap of rubble, ash and bloodied corpses, she used Vegeta's eyes to turn and see how the others were coming along. 

Goku had just Kamehameha'ed another building, clapping his hands in little girl merriment as the explosion shockwaved him backwards. Vegeta smiled, her charges always did like trying out thier host's powers. Gohan and Tayven was busy shooting a series of ki blasts at cars as he flew above them, making a game out of how many he could hit and how big of an explosion he caused. 

Vegeta's eyes trailed last to the blue haired woman and her family. They were breaking windows and laughing, running around causing random trouble. 

All the wonderful chaos was like a balm to sooth her senses. This is what the world _should _be like. This is what the world _will _be like, forever. 

A television in a broken store window flickered, laying on it's side, as a reporter's voice crackled in and out of static; "...horrible...they are attacking...city...lives...all over..." 

Yes, She smirked with Vegeta's lips, hands on his hips, _It was all over. _

~*~*~

"Stop this! Why are you doing this?!" The female's voice was frantic, she was clutching a jagged peice of glass and holding it out in front of herself as a weapon. All around her people were screaming and dying, horrid blasts rocked the air and she was covered head to toe in dust from the fallen buildings. She'd tried to run away, for it seemed they enjoyed killing as much as wrecking things and hadn't wanted to die just then. 

Not when she would be of legal drinking age in two years! Not to mention she had a really cute boyfriend and was about to land that awesome job at the clothing store. In her fear addled mind she failed to see how any of that was relevant anymore in the face of the current disastor. That her boyfriend was probably dead and said clothing store nothing but a heap of broken stone and bits did not cross her mind. 

Piccolo looked at the girl and tilted his head to the side, a confused look drawing across his face. "Don't you want to play?" He asked in an errily child-like sounding voice. The tone of voice coming from his deep baritone had a slightly unsettling effect, "Don't you like games that make things 'splode! I sure do! Come on! I'll show you!" 

The girl screamed as Piccolo grabbed her arm, pulling her up, slashing air with her 'weapon'. At the sound of the peircing yell, the namek released her and clutched at his stinging ears. In reaction, he backhanded the girl. She went flying against a still-intact wall and crumpled, broken and empty, along it's base. 

Piccolo looked up, his ears had stopped hurting. "Ooww...Why did she do that? I just wanted to play a game with her...Oooh..." He noticed her still form, laying at an awkward angle against the wall, "She's broken." Shrugging, he turned to find another 'plaything'. 

This can't be happening! Piccolo stood in the center of his mind, surrounded by all that he normally saw when he mediated. Yet, the corners moved with unseen horrors and darkness slithered along the edges, he caught them from the corners of his dark eyes. He felt extremely far away from what was happening outside his body. He almost felt as if were not even a part of his own body. It was a feeling he was not at all comfortable with. 

The most horrible part was that he was forced to witness the havoc he and the others were causing. Witness and do nothing. Fists clenched at his sides, the namek growled in frustration as the one who'd taken over his person forced him into the air and began using his ki to blow apart random objects and running people as it used his voice and throat to laugh at thier fear and pain. 

"Why do you look mad?" 

Piccolo turned, crouching instinctivally into a defensive posture, breathing through his teeth. He saw a little boy standing there, looking at him through huge dark eyes and a mop of white-blonde hair. The child was dressed in a black shirt and shorts with white tennis shoes. He wore a look of slight confusion mixed with amusement. 

"Your hurting people!" Piccolo said, "Don't you understand how bad that is!" 

The boy shrugged, "So?" 

"You...you shouldn't do it!" Piccolo said, not very comfortable dealing with kids, even kids who killed, "Why do you want to hurt people?" 

"Because that's what we do." 

"You could change." 

"No..." The boy said, "We can't. We have to do as she says." 

"Who...?" The he understood and said; "What if she told you to be good kid and stop hurting people?" 

The boy laughed; "She'd never say that! You don't know her very well, do you?" 

Piccolo waited for the kid to quit before replying; "Nevermind that. What if she did. What would you do?" 

"I'd have to do as she says." He said, simply, shrugging again, "Why are you asking me these questions? I just wanted to ask if you were enjoying the game?" 

"This...this is all just a...game to you?" Piccolo asked in revulsion, "Kami..."

"Of course," He said, "What else would it be?" 

Without warning, Piccolo turned and grabbed the boy by his shoulders, shaking him roughly while spitting into his face as he yelled; "Listen to me, you little freak! Killing innocent people and destroying property is NOT a game!" Piccolo's hands slipped around the boy's throat and he was throttling him in his fury. 

Startled for a moment, the child acted quickly, drawng his knowlege from the bowels of Piccolo's mind, he focused for moment, still being shaken back and forth, and his image began to fade and shimmer. Piccolo gasped as white-blond locks were suddenly filled with black, blue eyes became dark as he stood staring down at... 

"What are you doing, Mr. Piccolo?" Little Gohan, looking about the age he'd been when he first started training him, looked up at him, "Why are you trying to hurt me...?"

No! Piccolo snatched himself away from the child and backed up. No... 

Laughing, the child's featured shimmered once more and Piccolo realized how he'd been duped. They had taken over his body, forced him to things agains his will. That was bad enought, he reasoned, as he snarled at the kid who giggled at him. But, this...this twisting of his memories...emotions...using the likenesses of those he cared about more than life itself to mock and taunt him. 

No. This was too much. He had to draw the line somewhere. 


	10. Piccolo's Gambit

"It's utter chaos! I can't believe what's happening!" The man's voice shook with fear as he stumbled backwards over a pile of rumble, crawled out and continued to scream into his cordless microphone. A cameraman was trying desperately to remain focused and in control as buildings exploded and windows shattered all around him. But he squealed like a girl and dropped the camera as an explosion came a little too close for comfort. "Hey! Come back! This is the scoop of the century!" The reported bellowed, half-crawling, half-running after him. 

"Oh, kami!" A random woman screamed, holding a wailing toddler on her hip, her blonde hair in complete disarray, "Where's Hercule when we need him!?" 

"Yeah!" Another voice yelled, huddled into corner with what seemed to be his immediate family, "Where's our savior?!" 

Vegeta looked around, or rather, the being inside Vegeta used his eyes to look around, a scowl upon his otherwise handsome features. He heared the cry go up from those who had yet survived his blasts and his fists curled at his sides, power radiating from him in waves as hot as the anger of the entity inside of him. How _dare _they seek to save themselves?! 

"Hercule!" Came the cry, of about two hundred or so survivors, over the sound of Piccolo, Gohan and Goku's explosions and laughter, the screams and toppling cement;

"Hercule! Hercule!" 

"Aaargh!!" Vegeta's gutteral cry drowned out all the voices combined. As did the powerful attack launched from his palms towards the people, who tried to scatter. The ground blew away beneath them and cracked down the center. Those who had not been killed outright by the blast, fell into the newly formed crevice and were crushed amid rocks and debri when the earth was once more altered as Vegeta continued his assault with several more powerful blasts. "No one will save you, you pathetic creatures! All of you die now! DIE NOW!" 

And within Vegeta's mind, in the dark corner he found himself to be locked within, watching yet unable to move to prevent what was taking place, the Saiyan Prince struggled against invisable bonds and used every curse word he knew, of Earthly origin and Saiyan as his dark eyes flashed dangerously. 

A silvery thread of laughter issued upwards to where he sat, still trying to free himself, his hands at his sides curled into fists. He could see nothing holding him down, yet he could not move. It was unnerving to say the very least. The laughter became a giggle and he saw a flash of silvery-white out of the corner of his eye. Followed by a larger shadow, cloaking the smaller one. 

"Oh, Monkeys are fun, aren't they, Mistress?" A little girl's voice squeaked, sounding much like Puar, Vegeta's ears twitched from the sound, "I wonder if this one will do any tricks?" 

Vegeta blinked as she materilized in front of him and held a stick in her small, thin hands. Her long, white blonde hair fell over her shoulders and pooled at her feet like a rippling, transparent waterfall. Her eyes, he saw, looked like two muddy pools, deep and devoid of anything resmembling honest affection or love. Her eyes looked dead. 

He snarled as she poked the stick's sharpened end into his ribs, giggling as he tried to jerk away from her, spittle erupting from between his clenched teeth. How he longed to rend her limb from limb... 

"Careful now, dear one." The larger shadow came up behind the girl and covered her hand with her own, stilling the movement of the stick, "Not too much. Your little monkey will do his tricks for you...with the proper...motivation..." 

"I...hate...you...!" The words seemed ripped from his throat, Vegeta snarled and gasped after each syllable, breathing hard. He was so angery he couldn't find words strong enough to fully express his disgust and hatred. "You will pay! I'll see you pay for this!" 

Laughing, the little girl took ahold of her Mistress' hand and skipped with her into the darkness of Vegeta's mind, there to torment him further as they used his body to wreck havoc upon innocents... 

~*~*~

Tayven! 

Tayven stirred. She'd been shooting ki blast at cars alongside Gohan and was having a great time, more fun, really, then she ever remembered having before. She'd been pretending that she'd been playing a really realistic video game and tallying up her 'points' to compare with Gohan's to see which of them had caused the most damage when she'd been knocked backwards accidently by her own blast when it had bounced off a yet-still-standing building.(A/N: Don't ask....Don't you just love fan-fiction physics?) 

She rubbed dust from her face and tried to focus. Everything was double. And hazy. Very hazy. It took her a few moments to realize the haze was smoke from several fires and coughed as soot entered her lungs. She tried to move, but her leg felt broken and she was aching all over. 

She was hurting in places on her body she wasn't certain she even knew the names of! Rolling over so as now to become crushed by a falling peice of a building, Tayven swallowed back the scream as pain as sharp as a jagged end of a knife sliced through her calf. Tears in her eyes, she tried to drag herself away. 

Tayven! 

Pausing, her eyes widened as she realized, belatedly, that she was no longer being controlled. She looked at the others, saw thier expressions even from the distance she was from each of them, and shook her head in confusion. How could she have gotten free, when she had little to no experience ental combat, indeed _any _type of combat, when they had not....

Tayven...listen to me! There isn't time for questions! 

Grabbing her head, she cried out. She wasn't used to having someone speaking to her from _inside... _

Closing her eyes she tried to get a better feel for whoever was addressing her, Tayven instictivally scooted away from all the chaos and felt herself falling backwards through the tunnels of her mind. 

Picking her way through mental debri, kicking aside objects that may or may not have certain symbolic meaning to her, she followed the glimmering down one twisting mental tunnel after another coming to a stop, at last, before...

"Piccolo..." She gasped, as the tall namek warrior turned towards her, His form shimmered around the edges, "That's what Gohan called you, right?" 

"Yes," He said, his voice sounded strained, and she felt him tremble, even standing a few feet away, as though he were struggling with something, "It...cost me much...to remain like so...She's trying to gain control again..." 

Gritting his teeth, Piccolo plunged onward, trying to explain to her that, since she'd knocked herself on the head she'd momentarily dislodged the being's control over her and he had taken that oppertunity to shove past the one holding himself hostage to mentally link with Tayven and force the aspect who'd taken over her into the background. 

But, as she felt darkness reaching, like skeletal hands towards her, threatening to pull her back and regain power, she knew that time was short. 

"We have to get through to the others," He said, struggling over each word, she saw him shiver in what looked to her like pain, but gave no other sign than that as he held out his hand to her, "Come on! There's no time, Tayven! Stop hesitating and give me your hand!" 

"I...don't know what to do!" She snarled, but clasped her much smaller hand inside his own, feeling her mental self being drawn towards him, as everything seemed to shift and alter, air whooshed past at great speeds, making it seem hard to breath, if she needed to breath, that was. 

Her head felt like a thousand bees were buzzing inside her skull, setting her teeth on edge and she when she looked, she saw that she was above everything, flying, her hand still gripped almost painfully tight within Piccolo's. She saw her own body, slumped down inside a crevice, looking very dead. 

She felt her heart catch in her throat and Piccolo said, gruffly, "Your not dead. Now, pay attention. If you don't do this right you might as well just join your half-dead self and everyone else who's been killed already down there in that concrete grave." 

Great, Tayven thought bitterly, way to lay on the pressure, Green Bean...

"And don't call me Green Bean!" Piccolo's mental self snarled at her. 

Tayven jumped. She really didn't care for this mental link business. Not at all. 

"So, just do as I tell you and we can seperate soon, kid." Piccolo assured her, looking grimly to the side at her. Tayven sighed but grit her teeth, determined to face whatever was coming with little to no complaining... 


	11. The Struggle For Freedom

Bulma looked up, she felt heavy, drained. It was difficult to move and her arms felt like someone had poured lead into them. Brushing a strand of blue hair from her eyes, she quinted into the dying sun and saw her husband's strong, muscular form shadowed against the outline of the sunset. A beautiful sight, really. 

Or, she rubbed her eyes, it would have been had the look in his eyes not been one of complete and utter bloodlust. 

Gasping, she felt something near her stomach move. Clutching her gut, she leaned over and barely had time to react before she was spewing the contents of her stomach all over the ground. Trembling, she wiped her mouth and noticed that along with her vomit a thin, silvery strand of mist issued from her mouth and glided, uncertainly, in front of her. It was then she realized that she was no longer trapped inside her own mind. She was free! She nearly screamed with joy at the realization. 

"V-Vegeta...?" She reached a hand towards him, her voice horse, afraid it was too late for him... 

Bulma! 

Bulma stopped, her hand still in mid-air, still reaching. She turned her attention inwards and listened. 

Bulma! It's me, Tayven! Listen...

She nodded and Tayven was suddenly washed over with all of Bulma's fears and regrets for what they had done...all the death...all the distruction. Rocking backwards with the onslaught of those emotions, Tayven felt Piccolo's spirit hand upon her shoulder, strength flowing from him to her and steadying her. Together they floated downwards and entered Bulma's mind. 

Tayven looked around briefly, amazed at all the mathimatical equations and other scientific stuff floating around inside of Bulma's head. 

She also noticed a large part of her brain was occupied by the images of Vegeta and Trunks, as well as all of those other people she held dear. They shone amid the darkness like beacons of purest light. Tayven felt drawn to that light, it was so pretty and warm... 

Keep your mind on the task! Piccolo's voice hissed in her ear and brought her back to reality. 

Sorry... Tayven mumbled, focusing on Bulma once more, _Bulma, we need your help. Piccolo and I were able to force the creature from you, but it's hard to hold it back..._

Bulma felt the tugging at the corners of her senses as she felt and heard Tayven's mind-voice. She knew, from the strain in Tayven's voice, that she was struggling to keep the entity from reclaiming her. Looking upwards, she asked, aloud; "What do I have to do?" Her body's voice echoed within her head. She was standing in front of the shimmering forms of both Piccolo and Tayven. 

Looking at Piccolo, who merely nodded once, she held out her spirit hand towards Bulma. _You must come with us. Take my hand... _

Reaching out, Bulma clasped her hand within Tayven's. Piccolo held Tayven's other hand and a rush of enegry flowed like water over every part of her, making her feel more alive and clear-headed than she'd ever felt before. It was invigorating. Like a cool shower after spending an hour in a hot sauna. She felt like she could take on the world. 

Not so fast, Bulma, Piccolo's calm baritone reached her and loosed her from her reverie, _We still need to help the others. But we have to go after Vegeta first... _

"Yes..." Bulma whispered, "She holds him most strongly...the children..."

...Whose powers will fall asunder if we take away their leader... Tayven mused, surprised 

at the nod of affirmation from Piccolo and Bulma. 

"It was what I assumed, before...before all this..." Bulma said, she thought, briefly, that she must look odd talking to herself, but she didn't care. All she cared about now was helping her husband and her friends and family. "Vegeta..." 

Go to him, Bulma, Piccolo said, looking towards the Saiyan Prince from the windows of Bulma's eyes, _Tayven and I, we will lend you strength to give to him. Help him fight his way out. _

Bulma nodded and with a rush that felt like air leaving her lungs, plunged forward out of her body. She looked down and saw that she was standing next to Piccolo and Tayven, who had both left her mind at the same time and stood watching her, both still glowed with a faint golden outline and she could see through them if she squinted her eyes almost closed. 

Looking down at her own hand, she turned it over and saw it was pale and transparent, but that it's edges glowed as well. 

Taking a deep breath, she steered herself towards Vegeta and, with a cry, plunged straight through his stomach and upwards into his mind, growing smaller as she did so. She paused within a darkened corridor of his mind and shoved aside all the scary thoughts she'd ever had of wondering what lurked within the deepest recesses of a mass murder's head. Would she find the death-agony screams of those he'd killed in the past? Inner demons gnashing thier teeth and trying to grab at her with bloodied claws? 

"Knock it off!" She told herself, "This is your husband! The one you can't live without! Get a grip and get moving!" 

As she progressed, she realized that his mind was far more orginized than her own. She wondered if that had anything to do with his saiyan training. Probably, she nodded, as she stepped across box labeled; "Past Regressions: To Be Examined Later" and snorted to herself when she saw one marked; "Bulma: Gorgeous Girl." She was just about to let her curiousity get the better of her, reaching her fingers towards the box when she heard his footsteps behind her. 

"Being nosy again, I see." He said, with only a hint of his usual self-satified smirk, "Bulma, what you doing here? Or is this another one of your tricks?!" 

At his words, Bulma knew that she was not the 'your' he was speaking of. She spun about in place as cruel laughter filled the void around them and moved to stand closer to Vegeta's spirit form. She reached out and touched his shoulder, getting an electic shock at the touch. 

"Vegeta, it's really me," She said, hoping he would believe her, "I've come to help you get rid of this riff-raff!" 

"You feel stronger, woman..." He murmered, as her hand still rested upon his shoulder, "I sense the namek and the kid, Tayven, around..." 

"Yes, they're here too! They've regained control of thier bodies and are helping me to help you." She said, "We have to get rid of...what did the children call her...Mistress? We have to get rid of her first!" 

****

You stupid infants! Bulma jumped and felt Vegeta shove her instictivally behind him, crouching down into a defensive stance, snarling at the voice that seemed to echo from all around them, **_There is no way I will allow my plans to be disrupted by such a pathetic attempt! It almost makes me want to let you try for it...it would prove to be most amusing... _**

"Your always hiding in the shadows!" Tayven was suddenly there, in spirit, her hands clenched into fists at her sides, glaring around, in front of Vegeta and Bulma, "Or taking on other forms! We've yet to see you as you really are! I'm begining to think that your nothing but a coward! Always skulking in the shadows and laughing like you have all the control!" 

****

Oh, but I do have all the control, Little One, She cackled, **_You are merely puppets put on this planet for me to pull your strings and make you dance as I see fit. _**

Laughter, cruel and ice-hard, surrounded them. 

Tayven would have lost it, had not she felt Piccolo's hand grab her upper arm and jerk her backwards so hard she almost fell. _No! Don't be stupid, kid! That's what she wants! _

Don't listen to the green freak, child, Mistress taunted both Tayven and Piccolo, **_You know you want to hurt me...go on...feel angry...feel rage..._**

Tayven's eyes narrowed as her heart sped up. She felt a rush of anger washing over her and all of a sudden she wanted nothing more than to tear into the bitch and make her pay for what she was doing to them. She growled under her breath and began to pant with her rage, seeing crimson through the eyes of her soul. Crimson with the blood she wished she could spill... 

****

Yes, yes, yes! Mistress cried, laughing, **_That's it! Your rage gives me strength...power....More, child, give me more! _**

Sickened, Tayven forced herself into calmness and pushed aside her emotions, striving to feel nothing at all. She noticed Mistress' power dwidling, spiraling downwards and a feeling of disapointment flowed from her to greet them all. 

"Tayven..." Bulma said, leaning forward in front of Vegeta to address the girl, "You have to control yourself. Remember, they feed of of negative emotions...." 

****

You shut your face, slut! Mistress' hand slashed out, claws dripping with what looked like glittering blood, and slashed, cat-like across Bulma's pale cheek, sending the woman reeling backwards. **_I knew I should have just killed you, but my children have taking a liking to you... _**

"Bulma!" Vegeta cried, rushing to his mate, whose cheek was stained with blood. She held her hand to it and the redness washed from between her fingers. Pulling aside her fingers, Vegeta saw the four deep gashes in the side of her face. He looked up at the evilness floating like a dark shadow before them and said, slowly between grit teeth, "No one lays a hand on my woman and gets away with it." 

Vegeta! Piccolo said, _There is no time for this! We need your help to save the others! We can't destroy her until we've freed the others! _

"She needs to pay!" Vegeta seethed, "She needs to suffer!" 

She will! Piccolo said, _But now is not the time! Tayven, Bulma! _He called them to him and they grabbed each others' hands like last time, holding out her hand to Vegeta, Bulma beckoned him. "Vegeta...come on! We need you!" 

****

No! What are you doing? Stop! Mistress cried, and they all felt the wavering in her tone, the underlining of fear and doubt, **_Your insane! You can't possibly think you can beat me...?! _**

"Maybe not yet," Tayven said, as she felt the power building within her, power made stronger by the others near her, giving her thier strength and she her's. Awash with the light of that strength, the three of them pushed Mistress back far enough to allow Vegeta to leave his body as Piccolo and Tayven had done before him. "There isn't much time..." Bulma was saying as they floated, unseen, above the ground over thier prone bodies, "We have to steer the children's loyalty away from thier Mistress..." 

Easier said than done... Tayven shivered, not wanting to face any more of them, but knowing that she had no choice. 

~*~*~

"What is it?" Mr. Popo leaned forward and shivered as a strange feeling coursed along his bones. 

Dende looked up, frowned and said; "I don't know...such horrible enegry...and death...many deaths...It's awful! Why couldn't I have felt this coming, Mr. Popo? Why can't I do anything to stop it!?" 

"Mr. Popo has no words of wisdom for you today, young one..." The genie shook his head sadly, "Mr. Popo fears the worst...." 

"No!" The young namekian gaurdian cried, his hands balled into fists at his sides, "There must be a way to end this horror! There just has to be!" 

"I....I fear it's too late, Dende..." 

"No it's not!" Dende snapped, his eyes narrowed, "I refuse to accept that, Mr. Popo! There just had to be a way!" 

__


	12. Goku's Torment

****

No! Stop! Vegeta heard the voice inside his head even as the fist connected with his ribs and sent him flying. The air burst from his lungs and he looked down, realizing that he was in his physical body once more and the fist that had hit him had belonged to Goku! But the voice, the voice was definintly _not _Kakkarot's! "**I'll kill you before you can think twice, stupid fool!" **

Spinning in a round-house kick that caught Vegeta in the jaw, Goku yelled and used his own momentuem to carry him onward, landing with a series of punches to the saiyan prince's face so swift that the human eye would have had trouble following. Bulma chewed her lip, also back

inside her body. The girl, Tayven, clutching her real hand within her own as they both watched in horror.

Tayven and Bulma heard laughter behind them and turned to see Chi Chi standing there, hands on her hips, looking up at her husband, her dark eyes manical and not her own. She clapped her hands in childlike glee and began to cheer for them to continue. Bulma shot her a glance and Tayven grabbed her arm, restraining her. "She's not herself!" 

"But..."

Vegeta took another hit to the face which knocked him back, but not flying and he returned the favor with a round of punches and kicks to Goku's mid-section. Grunting and screaming in rage, the two saiyans fought, one being controlled by another force, the other fighting that force. "**You cannot win, weaklings!" **Her voice mocked, but they could hear the doubt, "**Your pathetic postering is merely amusing for me..."**

"Shut up you stupid cow!" Tayven yelled, unable to stand anymore and her anger getting the best of her. Vegeta glanced over at the sound of her voice and recieved another swift kick to the chest, sending him flying backwards into Piccolo. Growling, he got up and faced Goku once more, wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. 

"Kakkarot! Listen to me, you fool! You are being controlled! You must fight it! Fight her!"

"You are so worthless!" Goku's mouth opened, the words came out, but they were not his own, nor his own voice. It sent shivers down Tayven's spine as she watched, her fists curled and it took Piccolo's strong arm about her waist to keep her from launching herself into the fray as well. **"All of you! Nothing but weak cowards who will bend and yeild to me like the playthings you are!" **

No, Tayven! Piccolo's voice in her head made her wince as she felt herself jerked backwards when she would have gone to help Vegeta, _You'll get yourself killed, girl! _

Within his own mind...another battle was taking place; 

"Darn it!" Goku cried, his hands clenched into fists, his eyes narrowed in anger, in horror at what he is seeing, what he, even though it was not really him, doing. He stood in the center of his own dark room. Held in place there. He could move about, but could not leave. He saw everything happening outside as though through a glass window, unable to break through and stop the terror that he was a witness to; "No! There has to be a way! There just has to be! I won't give up! I refuse to give up!" 

He felt something stirring near the edges of his conscienceness and paused, head cocked to the side, listening....feeling. Finally he felt it...slight, but there. A way! He nealy jumped with joy. There was a way to beat this! "Yes! I just have to let them know....somehow...." 

"And just what are you planning on telling them, my dear?" 

Goku spun around, instantly in fight mode, crouched down, looking towards the voice he'd heard clear as day. A soft laughter met his ears and an unbidden trickle of cold sweat moved down his spine. He glared for a moment; "You. Your the evil that's doing this. Stop it. Stop it now!" 

She came out of the shadows and he cringed, seeing her for the first time since she'd taken over his body, she was like all his nightmares combined, just by looking into her eyes he saw all of his worst fears....her eyes seemed made up on nothing but anger, hurt, fear, betrayal, darkness, failure and blood...so much blood....he had to look away before he got sucked into them and lost his soul in the horror. 

Instead he waved his hand towards the glass window showing the choas outside his body, which had stopped fighting Vegeta since she who was controlling that part of him was now occupied here, within, toying with him. "Those are innocent people you're playing with! You've made them destroy and kill others! I won't let this go on! Do you hear me! Your through!" 

He had straightened up as she laughed, cold and mocking, pointing a long, narrow blood-tipped finger at him; "Oh, don't make me laugh! What are you going to do to stop me?" And as if to prove her point, she flashed her eyes towards the glass window and 

Goku gasped in shock as she forced him to power up and draw his hands back in the stance he takes to launch a kamehameha (A/N: Sp?_) wave. Only...where he was aiming... _

"No!" He cried, running to the glass and pounding on it, "Stop! Don't!" 

She laughed behind him, head thrown back so that had he glanced over he would have been able to see her tonsils. Outside, he heard her voice instead of his own, calling out the name of the attack, gathering energry. He beat on the glass with his fists, trying to stop himself.... 

"What are you doing?" Vegeta cried, seeing that Goku was powering up, but that he wasn't looking at him anymore. He was looking...towards a group of children standing off to the side, clinging to each other and crying, the rubble all around them and in their hair, their clothing ripped and torn, faces scratched and bloodied. Somehow they had survived the destruction around them. There were four. Two girls who looked around eight and a two boys of about fourteen or so. The boys were trying to comfort the girls. They looked up and screamed, crying louder. 

"**Kaa....maaaaa.....haaaaa.**...." 

"Goku!" Bulma cried, realizing what he was about to do, "No!! Let him go, you monster! Let _him go_!" She was yelling, of course, at the evil which was controlling her friend. Tears blinded her as she cried, sobbed and ran over to grab Goku's leg; "Please, Goku! Listen to me! Listen!" She cried, trying to make him see her, hear her...trying to see just a flicker of her old friend in his eyes. 

He looked down at her, narrowed his eyes and back to the children, his lip curling in a sneer. 

"...maaaaaaa.....haaaaa!!!" He finished, sending the blast flying from his palms towards the terrified children. 

He watched in horror, eyes wide, mouth parted, breathing in and out...he watched the blast....the explotion, heard the echoing cries of those children boucing off his own mind. He heard her laughter behind him as well and growled, a menencing sound, anger flaring upwards around himself. He couldn't believe what he just saw....what had just happpened. 

"So, do you see now, you stupid creature?" She laughed, looking at him and waving hand towards the glass; "I control you, I control you **all**! That was just an example of my power over you!" 

Goku turned away, seemingly subdued by her words, she laughed. Then, a gowl, a sudden cat-like crouch and he was on her faster than she could blink, holding her to the floor, his hands about her throat, glaring fire with his eyes; 

"You..made...me...kill....them!" He breathed the words, panting, holding her down, even though she did not struggle, "I'll finish you for what you've done!" 

**** __


	13. Momentary Victory

"You see?" The voice invaded his thoughts, even as he, himself, was trapped within his own mind, a prisoner in a familiar prison. "You cannot win against me…none of you can. See what your resistance has cost those children?" Laughter echoed throughout the chambers of his mind as Goku, still seething, tried not to listen. He tried to think of a way out of this. There had to be… It almost seemed like he'd found a way…before…

"Oh, do stop trying!" She laughed, her foul essence circling his own, "You'll only hurt yourself! Give up, Goku… Give up your will entirely to me. I all ready own your power and your body! I can make you do anything my little heart desires!"

"You own nothing!" Goku spat, all the hatred, fear and anger he'd ever felt for Frieza rising upwards through his being, "You don't own anything of mine!"

"Now, that's where you're wrong," She said, and he saw a flickering shadowing form near the corner, covered, leaking, darkness, "Behold…" A sweeping gesture with one of her limbs towards the window to the outside. Goku turned in spite of himself, gazing out of his own eyes, "Your son."

"Gohan…no…" As he watched, helpless to intervene, just like he'd been helpless to intervene only moments before as he destroyed the lives of those innocent children, Gohan stood off to the side, gathering energy around him like a tornado. Nature's debris as well as man's circled him, faster and faster, as crackling lightning coursed through his body and flickered around his bulging form. In his son's eyes, Goku saw what only could be described as pure evil. White-hot, piercing and hungry to hurt. "Let him go you monster! You fucking monster!"

"My my! Do you kiss your wife with that mouth?" She asked, mockingly, as she turned back towards Gohan and cocking her head to one side, seemed to speak to someone outside of the saiyan warrior's range of hearing; "Hmm…yes, go ahead. Have fun… not too much though. I still want him intact."

Goku cringed as he watched his son, before his eyes, look around like a zombie, find a target and grin manically. The girl, Tayven, was just gathering her senses and gazing around, confused. A blast flew from his son's fingers, landed in the dirt next to the girl. Screaming, Tayven was pulled away before a second, more accurate ball of energy could strike her.

"Piccolo!" Tayven cried, having been yanked away just in time by the namekian, "Gohan…it's… I can't stand this! Where's Vegeta and Bulma? We have to stop this… we need to…I can't…" She was babbling and Goku felt bad for her. This was a lot of pressure for someone her age, especially after what she'd been through all ready.

He knew she needed to get it together if they were to have any hope of overcoming this. He knew Piccolo would know what to do. He trusted him. It was his son he was worried about now. The boy had suddenly turned his attention towards the other members of the possessed, calling to them with a child's voice, a voice not his own. Goku couldn't quite make out the words as they all seemed to speaking some mangled form of babyish babbling and adult speech.

"It seems my children are getting bored," The creature said to Goku, as though talking over Sunday brunch, "They require…more stimulation…"

A sharp knife twisted in his gut as the words washed across him. So many people…dead all ready… so many buildings ruined. Satan City was utter destroyed. Bodies lay everywhere, the dust was still rising. They wanted more? They wanted more? He knew what that meant. City after city, town after town… people…dying…horrible. "I won't let it happen! You hear me! I won't let you do this!"

"So you've said…" Goku caught the glimpse of the presence a split second before she did, "Who dares…?"

"Hey, bitch!" Goku turned to see Bulma's shimmering, transparent form. Caught off guard, the creature was struck back slightly by Bulma's fist, which landed, solidly enough, smack into her jaw, "That's for what you did to my husband!"

"Bulma!" Goku cried, ignoring his feeling of pride towards the azure-haired woman and her bravery, "Get out of here! She's too strong for you…!"

"What about for me, Kakkarot?" Vegeta's voice was followed by his own spectral body, standing next to his mate, "I don't know about you, but I think it's time to teach this…thing…a lesson."

Goku didn't know how they'd done it, but he was thankful. Taking his place next to Vegeta, Goku nodded, advancing on the woman-like monster that had caused so much suffering so quickly. "You can't win!" She cried, backing a few steps away, "You are foolish to even try…you will only upset me…" As she babbled, clearly trying to bind her time, Goku realized that the other children, the possessed members of his friends and family, had vanished.

They did not so much as disappear as leave. In search of other places to demolish, he had assumed. Gathering their energy, Goku and Vegeta's combined powers flared though the small space that was Goku's head, blazing with fire.

"Y-you can't win!" She cried again, flinching from the brightness. Bulma grasped Vegeta's free hand and squeezed, allowing all the love she felt for him, all the emotions she'd gathered through their years together to rise upwards. Without having to be told twice, Goku snatched up Bulma's other hand and held tightly, focusing.

White-hot light that was nearly tangible began to form, circling the three of them, growing brighter than anything any of them had ever witnessed. "S-Stay back… you cannot win…you cannot…" Cornered, nearly defeated, the entity sunk to her knees, trying to ward them off with a slash of her long-nailed hand. She tried, as Goku knew she would, to assume the forms of various people the three of them had known and loved, trying for a way to weaken the link they'd formed between them.

"Help me!" She screamed, looking wildly around, panic beginning to show in her gleaming eyes, "Your Mistress needs you! Children! To me! To me!"

"Shut up!" Vegeta snapped, "Your little demons won't be coming to help you. They've abandoned you."

"You lie!" She shook her head, still not able to look directly at the three of them, "You lie."

"One of them told me herself," Bulma said, in a somewhat gentle voice, "She'd been growing tired of being connected with you. She's been wanting her freedom for awhile now…"

"N-no…" The Mistress denied, "They wouldn't… They couldn't… Children! I am your Mistress! Your duty is to me! Come to me! Now!"

"They won't listen to you," Goku said, "It's too late. Give up now. Give up and we might decide to go easy on you…"

A side glance at Vegeta told him that the saiyan prince would not agree to that at all. Screaming, the creature faded out and suddenly, like a something popping back into place, Goku found himself upon the ground, his gi filthy and dirt in his mouth. Licking his lips, he swiped the back of one hand across his mouth, spitting out the grime. It took only a moment to realize that he was back in control of his own body. A green hand floated downwards into his field of vision and he lifted his eyes, taking in the arm and shoulder, torso, neck and head of the person that proffered hand belonged to. Grasping it, Goku allowed Piccolo to help him to his feet.

"It's not over, yet," he asked, all ready knowing the answer, "Is it?"

"No," Piccolo sighed, "Though I don't think she'll try to take you over again…at least not for awhile. You, Vegeta and Bulma gave her a pretty good run for her money."

"Where's Gohan and the others?" Goku looked around, feeling with his senses to get a lock on anyone alive…anyone…

"Gohan regained control of his body and mind," Piccolo explained, his dark eyes flickering towards the horizon, where the tips of purple snow-topped mountains could be seen in the distance, "Just long enough to lead the other children away. I thought that it would do some good to separate the Mistress from her charges."

"It did some good all right," Goku said, wiping his hands on his tattered gi pants, "She seemed weaker without them around."

Nodding, the namekian said, "Yes, I was thinking that was the case. She draws her power from them…and they draw it from whomever they possess. The more powerful the being they inhabit, the more powerful they become and in turn…"

"…the more powerful she becomes." Goku finished , "Is there a way we can keep them away from each other forever?"

"Only if we destroy one, the other or both of them," Piccolo said, "Mistress, Children, or all."

"If one more person has to die by my hands," Goku said, "She should be the one."

"She's not a person, Goku," Piccolo said, "And she's all ready dead. She's been dead long before…before all this. What we need to focus on is sending her back to where she belongs. After we do that, I have a feeling we won't hear from those misguided ghostly children any more."


	14. Author's Note Very Short

_**Author's Note**_

I would really like to take this moment to thank those of you who have been waiting paitently for the continuition of this story. Thanks for sticking with me and my computer problems, which seem to have been too many and too close together for my taste. Anyway, I know how annoying it is to have to read an A/N in the middle of a story, so I'll make this short. Basically; thanks and sorry for the delay.

Ami


	15. Bulma's Contribution

Stumbling over the rubble, Tayven held her hand over her mouth, trying not to breath in the dust and dirt swirling around. Coughing, she picked her way through the debris towards the just-stirring forms of Bulma and Vegeta. She saw Goku speaking with Piccolo quietly off in the distance. She hoped they were coming up with a plan to end this. All though, by the looks of things, it was all ready far too late. As she tripped over a piece of concrete fallen from one of the larger buildings, she cringed at the sight of a mangled arm trapped beneath it.

She knew the person the arm belonged to was beyond helping. Shuddering, she averted her eyes whenever they fell upon someone's body laying sprawled in the litter left of the chaos. She knew there were still people alive. There had to be! Straining her ears, she tried to listen to see if she could hear anything above the pounding of her heart in her ears and the gushing of her breath through her mouth. Then, suddenly, she heard it. A cry. Growing louder. Gazing around, her eyes still burning from the smoke billowing upwards from the fires started by the explosions, she realized what it was she was hearing.

"Trunks!" Tayven heard Bulma's cry a moment before she came to the realization that what she was hearing was the Capsule Corp president's infant son now wailing. Tayven looked around frantically trying to spot the child. A sudden sound of breaking cement and the wailing became hiccupping cries. Blinking, Tayven watched as the child threw the hunk of cracked concrete and rebar he'd been trapped under to the side, as if it were no heavier than a toy block.

Just as she was rushing towards him, Bulma intercepted her and gathered the small child up into her arms, raining a series of grateful kisses down up on his chubby face. She wasn't crying, Tayven could see, but she was very, very happy that her son was all right. "Shh…Don't cry," she said, "Mamma's here…It's okay, Trunks…Shh…"

"Hmph, Stop coddling him, woman," Vegeta said, stepping over someone's impromptu grave to get to his family, "Of course he's all right. He's a saiyan, isn't he?"

"What are we going to do?" Tayven asked, bringing their attention towards her, "Hey, look, I don't want to be here but I don't want the world destroyed either! I don't know what to do! Sensei," she asked, turning towards Vegeta, "I didn't expect this," she waved her hand, indicting the horror all around them, "to be part of the deal!"

"It's always part of the deal," Goku said, using his ki to fly himself over the debris, (Why didn't I think of that? Tayven asked herself), and landing near the three…err…four of them, "When you hang out with this bunch. Piccolo!" Goku called to the green man, who'd followed behind him, "Do you have any ideas on how to fix things? You mentioned something about sending The Mistress bad to where she belongs…"

"Well, we can't do anything until we're better prepared," Bulma said, switching Trunks to her other hip, "I think we should do a little more research on that house, those children and what this all means…"

"We should train more," Goku said, his hands balled into fists at his sides, "I couldn't stop her…I wasn't strong enough! Those children died because of my weakness…"

"We haven't got time for that!" Tayven cried, not believing what she was hearing. All ready those…those little monsters and their demented charge could be heading for trouble, eager to wreck more havoc upon innocent, unsuspecting people! "We have to stop them now!" She didn't look at Goku as she said this. She couldn't meet his eyes, they were filled with too much anguish, too much hurt. She just wanted this all over with so she could get on with her life and never have to see this place again, save for in her nightmares.

"We can't, Tayven," Bulma said, patting Trunks' back, "Not the way we are now. If we try to stop them now they'll just take us over again and then it will start all over…"

"Bulma's right," Piccolo finally spoke up. He had been lost in thought during the exchange, "But, we need to train our minds more than our bodies this time. The only reason was able to fight them off was my mind has had more training than any of yours."

"Bulma," Vegeta turned to her, scooping both her and his son up into his arms before she could protest, "I'm taking you home right now. Namek!" he called, "I hope you know what your talking about!"

"What are you talking about, Vegeta!" Bulma cried, "We haven't got a home! You...I mean...when you were taken over...you..." Vegeta didn't allow her to finish but said gruffly; "I'm taking you to Kami's Tower. Hold on."

"Wait!" She said, holding onto him and her son as they gained height, "Take me back to Capsule Corp! Maybe...maybe we can still salvage some things!"

Tayven watched them with a hand sheilding her eyes until they vanished from sight. She thought she saw them turn in the air towards Capsule Corp...or what was left of it.

"How long will it take until we're strong enough to keep them from possessing us?" She asked, turning from the grayish black sky towards Goku and then to Piccolo, her brows knitting upon her forehead as she waited for an answer. Piccolo spoke first, his deep bass rumble echoing through her head, even though they were no longer telepathically linked, "About a year…maybe longer. I don't know for certain. It depends on how strong you all are. Mentally."

He glanced sidelong at Goku as she said this, trying, Tayven noticed, to keep himself from breaking out into a smirk. Goku, for his credit, did not seem to notice as he took a deep breath and said, "I think we should all get a good night's sleep before we start."

Piccolo agreed; "I think Kami's Lookout is the only safe place we have left...for now...I suggest we all meet there as soon as possible."

"I have to go home and get Chi Chi," Goku said, with a stern look upon his normally jovial features, "I sure hope we can end this soon...a year might be too late..."

"Are you all _insane_?" Tayven screamed, waving frantically towards the purple and white mountains, "They're going to kill everyone in the world by then! We don't have a year…we don't even have an hour! We have to do something right now!"

"Listen, Tayven," Goku said, "We won't do anyone any good if we try and fail. A year gives us enough time to train our minds as well as to search out the dragonballs…"

"Dragonballs?" She asked, shaking her head, recalling bits and pieces of that story she'd read, and then rewrote using Bulma's computer. Goku nodded and she began to realize what he was getting at. She began to feel stupid for her outburst. "You understand?" he asked her and she nodded. "We can use the dragonballs to wish everyone back to life…after we get rid of the source of the problem…right?"

"Yeah, that's right," Goku said, and raised two fingers to his brow, standing motionless for a moment, "I'm going home to eat and rest up and bring Chi Chi to the lookout…you should do the same, Tayven."

"Where is this Lookout?" Tayven asked, rubbing the dirt and grime from her eyes. Her face hurt and she knew the bones were broken in her right cheek. It was difficult to speak. She waited for someone to answer her question. Goku replied; "It's a long way to fly. We'll help you get there. I know you're not as strong as the rest of us."

At any other time Goku's comment would have pissed her off. As it was she was aching too badly and was far too tired to care at the moment. All she wanted was a place to sleep for a few hours...hell, a few days wouldn't be bad, even if she knew they were working with borrowed time, so to speak. Goku placed two fingers to his brow and told them to take care and for Tayven not to worry. "Everything will work out, you'll see..." Even as he said this, Tayven could sense the feeling of dread beneath his tone. As if he were only saying this for her benefit.

"Do you really think we have a chance," Tayven asked Piccolo after Goku shimmered and disappeared, "Piccolo?"

"I don't know, kid," Piccolo said, "I'll send word out tomorrow morning where we'll be meeting for the start of the training. You better get back and rest up. You, out of everyone, are going to need it the most." As he said this last, the namekian vanished in much the same way as Goku, leaving the young woman to stand there, not liking the implication behind his tone that she was still, even after months of training with Vegeta, a little weakling.

"I'll show him!" She thought, concentrating on her own ki, lifting herself a few feet off the ground, "You'll see…I'm not…weak…." Losing her train of thought and control of ki, she felt herself falling. Before she could right herself, she landed hard against a corner of a broken building, crying out at the pain in her upper arm. "Dammit!"

She still had trouble thinking of other things and flying at the same time. It was hard to keep her mind on more than one task at the same time. Taking a breath, she steadied her thoughts and emotions and tried again. This time she was able to make it all the way back to the ruins of Capsule Corp. Her landing still needed work, as she rolled into a bush. Coughing up dust, she scooted herself out and brushed the leaves and twigs from her gi as she gained her footing.

Pacing within the confines of the gravity room, the saiyan prince ran his fingers through the dampness of his gravity-defying hair. His mood was irratable to say the least. Sweat dripped from his bare chest from his recent workout, his mind reeling with visions of what a bloody mess he'd like to make of that crazy bitch, if he could get his hands on her. The problem was, he knew, that there was nothing there, physically, for him to kill.

Whe he'd arrived back at the place he'd called home for the past few years, almost nothing remained but a gutted, still smoldering building. For some reason, and he assumed this to be the materials Bulma had used in it's creation, the circular gravity room was the only building still intact. Of this, Vegeta was as grateful as his arrogant, brash self could be under the circumstances.

"That bitch is going to pay," He said to himself, refering, of course, not to his mate, but to the vile creature who'd taken on a somewhat female form and wrought horrors upon the people he held dear. Recalling the torture of the past few days while he'd been trapped and unable to defend himself, Vegeta never wanted to feel such helplessness again. Shuddering in spite of himself, Vegeta vowed to pay her back ten-fold for the pain and humilation she'd caused him. Glaring into the dimness of the room, he began a series of one-handed push-ups. There was no reason, he thought, he couldn't keep working on honing his physical body as well as his mind.

He'd meditated before, but for Vegeta physical strength had always been more important than mental strength. He knew he was intelligent and he could manipulate his ki effectivally enough, but he didn't spend nearly as much time on the training within his body as some people he could name. That there was the threat of an enemy that could defeat him from within his own mind was too horrorific to contempulate. Whatever it took, if it took all the strength he had left, he'd show her that the prince of Saiyans was no one to be triled with.

"Where did I put that...?" Bulma punched a few keys on her state-of-the-art keyboard, the page loading faster than the blink of an eye as Tayven, recently washed up and changed into a pair of jeans and another Capsule Corp tee-shirt, stood behind her watching. Having expressed annoyance at the use of his personal shower system, the saiyan prince now tried his best to focus on his workout and not on the two jabbering females nearby. He had the gravity on normal so as not to be a burden to the two women using one of Bulma's computers, which had been built directly into one of the consoles of the room.

"...disk. Ah, here it is...let's see..." she read the black print upon the white background and Tayven saw a scan of an old black and white photograph. The center of the photo had been torn so that there was the mark of scotch tape holding it together. But, there was no mistaking it was the house that had mysteriously appeared a few miles from Capsule Corp.

"...a orphanage for ill-treated or abadoned children in..." Bulma read, aloud but mostly to herself. Tayven read over her shoulder, leaning forward a bit as she did so and resting her hands upon the back of Bulma's chair. Bulma had mentioned how lucky they'd been that the connection still worked. "It says here that the house was torn down after some kind of accident...accident. I wonder what could have happened..."

"I wonder if it has to do with the children?" Tayven asked, "The accident. What happened? Does it say?"

After a moment, Bulma clicked more links, gazed at more images and read a few more paragraphs in her search for answers, "Hmm, well, it says here the woman who ran the place vanished along with ten of her charges...there was an investigation but..." she looked away from the computer screen. Both her and Tayven's face were glowing from the light of the monitor, "...They were never found?" Tayven ventured at which Bulma nodded slowly.

"What about the house itself?" Tayven asked, glancing at the clock at the bottom of right-hand corner of the computer screen. It was a little after nine in the evening. Trunks was all ready asleep in a makeshift bed in the corner of the room, his mattress a workout padded mat and one of Bulma's sweaters, salvaged from a handful of capsules they'd found among the debris, covering him. Whatever bumps and bruises he'd suffered had healed up in a matter of hours. Bulma knew that was due to his father's blood. Although the Briefs family had a pretty high constitution as well, she knew. "Does it say anything at all about the house?"

"They found strange-looking diagrams and symbols written with some kind of dark ink throughout the basement and the people investigating said they felt," she read some more, "...'the air being sucked from thier lungs' in certain areas of the house..." At those words, Tayven instinctly drew her fingers towards her throat, remember what had happened to her upon her first foray into that house. "But, what does it mean?" she asked, "What happened there that could cause this?"

"That what I'm trying to find out, Tayven," Bulma replied, "You should get some rest."

"I'm all right," Tayven said, pushing a strand of her hair away from her eyes, "I want to go back there."

"What!" Bulma cried, jumping slightly from her seat, "You're _not_ going back to that house alone. At night."

"We should find out everything we can about it, Bulma," she said, "I mean...if you want to come with me..." Tayven wished she'd say she did. She had no desire to face that place alone in the dark. By herself. Bulma's face visably paled as she chewed her bottom lip. Tayven could tell she was trying to think of a way out of this without seeming unconcerned for her friends and family and the fate of the very world on which she lived .

"Woman! I've been thinking!" Vegeta bellowed, as he snatched a towel from the shower area, draping it across his shoulders and swiping the end of it across his face roughly.

"Well, I certainly hope you didn't injure yourself, Vegeta." Bulma responded without skipping a beat.

Ignoring her jibe, he went on, leaning somewhat against the console; "You and the brat need a safe place to stay while Goku and I are training with Piccolo...Tayven," he turned to thier guest, "I know you want to continue your training with me."

"Oh yeah," Tayven said, sarcastically, "More than I can say..." Actually, she did wish to continue. For some reason. It seemed to give her a sense of purpose. She hadn't felt that in a while. Not that she would eve admit it.

"Don't interrupt me!" He snapped, "But I want you to stay with Bulma and Trunks."

"What! You're not leaving me behind!" Bulma cried, at which Vegeta winced.

"I just told the brat to not interrupt me!" he said to Bulma before addressing Tayven once more, "Tayven, I can't concentrate on this training we're going to be doing with Piccolo if your around getting into trouble. I won't have time to babysit you."

At this Tayven felt her cheeks flaming. Anger rose up inside her, "I'm not a baby, you bastard!"

"Watch your mouth, girl," Vegeta said, "I wasn't finished...I need someone to stay and protect my family for me. Trunks is too small even if he's going to grown into a saiyan warrior like me!"

It rankled Vegeta to ask this of anyone, least of all a measily human female. In fact, the words tasted sour in his mouth. But, he knew that just screaming at the girl that he wanted her to stay behind while he focused on his training wouldn't be enough. He knew if he convinced her she was doing something important that she would be less likely to question his decision. If not she'd find a way to follow him and make him do something rash.

Like blast her into a million peices for mouthing off one too many times. Kami knows he'd all ready come close more than a few times during the months they'd been training together. If he made it sound like she was doing something useful for him, he was almost certain she would't catch on and that would the end of it. At least, he hoped so. Who knew, he thought, as the words fell from his lips, she might prove him right and actually be helpful to him and his family during his absence.

"Hey!" Bulma snapped, interrupting his thoughts, "I can take care of myself and Trunks just fine, Mister! And Capsule Corp has a panic room, you know...that's large enough for a family of five to live there for up to five years! It enough food and bottled water...and plumbing pumped right in! The walls are thick enough that even an explosion right next to it wouldn't phase it."

"Where is this room?" Vegeta asked, his eyes wide, "Why wasn't I ever told about it?"

"You were!" Bulma said, clicking a few keys and closing down her computer. She stood up and stretched, "You workout there everyday."

"What?" Vegeta cried, "You mean in here! Where? Show me. Now!"

"Well...actually, I should say you workout right _above_ it every day," Bulma smirked to herself, "Over here." Bulma continued to speak, explaining that she'd found time to tinker around on her project between other things here and there for the past few years. "I felt the need to create a place we can go in the event of an emergency...so I thought of an expanded on panic room."

Pressing a few buttons along the console nearest one of the rounded walls, Bulma coded her password into the machine and waited for a moment. After the clearance went though, Bulma pressed the palm of her hand against one of the wall panels and they heard it click. They watched as it fell backwards, out of sight, leaving a small, sqaure-shape hole in the wall in it's place. Reaching into the hold, Bulma pulled slighly and Tayven's intake of breath could be heard through the room. A door of some kind seemed to...appear...along the wall, cracking open slowly. She knew it was just an optical illusion, that the doorway was alway there. It was just that all the panels, buttons and lights had hid it from her eyes.

Vegeta seemed mightly put off by the fact that his mate had been messing around inside the place he considers his home-away-from-home, so to speak, and not just to fix something he'd broken or give him more challenges to overcome in his training. Even though he was as interested as Tayven in what the pretty genius was revealing to them.

"I'm not going close it yet, in case you want to look around," Bulma said, "Everything has been calculated and gone over three times. I made sure of it."

"I still don't see why you'd keep this a secret from me," Vegeta said, very close to pouting.

"Once I close the doors, the computer will lock them and seal anyone within inside for at least one year," she said, ignoring Vegeta.

"I thought you said five years?" Tayven asked, wrinkling her brow.

"I can calculate it to stay locked for up to five years...or one year," Bulma said, "It's just a matter of putting the correct amount of values into the computer..But anyway, it's not like we're ever going to need it. I plan on going out to find the dragonballs while you and the others work on your training."

"You'll do as I say!" he said, the purple vein in his forehead pulsing. Bulma's face turned crimson as she screamed at him; "I will not! I have just as much right to be involved in this as you! You little..."

"Don't finish that sentence, woman," he threatened, at which Bulma closed her mouth and just glared bullets at him. Tayven was afraid to get caught in the crossfire of these two feiry people. "I'm going to sleep. We'll discuss this in the morning." Seething, Bulma watched as her mate took his place upon an excersize mat on the floor in the farthest part of the room from where the women were standing.

The little girl was crying softly in the corner. Golden sausage curls bouncing slightly with every sob. Ignoring her, Gohan looked around, trying to find a way out. It was so dark he could hardly see his hand in front of his face. One thing kept playing over and over within his head. "What would Dad do?" He asked, aloud, at which the child, snuffling, looked up. She glared over at him and in the darkness he saw her blue eyes flashing like a cat's eyes when the light hit them just right. "Your Dad's not gonna help you or your friends!"

In spite of himself, Gohan felt sorry for her. What if it wasn't her fault she was like this. What had happened to her...to all of them...to make them this way? After a few more moments of pounding on the walls around him, he settled down, sighing and thought; at least we seem to be at rest right now. He knew everyone else was spread out on the ground within the cave they'd found inside one of the mountains they had been heading for earlier, curled into each other like a litter of puppies, snoring softly. He wondered if the other children within his friends and family were resting as well, if he and this...being...were the only ones awake at the moment.

"It feels strange," He said, talking to himself as well as to her, "To be trapped within my own head...Have you done this before? Taken people over?"

"It's all your fault!" She cried, wiping at her tear-streaked face with a fist, "If you hadn't distracted me...I wouldn't have lost her!"

Gohan thought about what he'd done to gain control of his own body, just for a few moments, enough to convince the other children that he was still possessed and have them follow him, away from their leader. Actually, it had been Piccolo would had given him the idea. The plan. Having been struggling for control, Piccolo spoke to him briefly, via telepathy, costing them precious time, Gohan knew. It had been a risk, but a risk well worth taking. At least now maybe Goku and everyone else who was still free and could still fight would have time to solve this problem.

You need to strengthen your mind, Gohan Piccolo had told him, one of the last things he'd said, If you can help the others...be strong...you'll be able to keep things somewhat in hand...

"What are you smiling about?" The girl asked, blowing her nose on her dress, "It's all over for you, you know. It's just a matter of time. When The Mistress..."

"Why do you call her that?" Gohan interrupted, "She's not your mother, is she?"

"No...But, I don't...don't remember having a mother," she said, blinking towards Gohan, "It's always just been...us and her...always."

"Don't you wish you could be free?" Gohan asked, crossing his legs into the lotus stance, he'd learned from Piccolo.

She couldn't move from her place near the corner, Gohan knew, but if he allowed his attention to stray too far...

"I was free." she said, at which she glared once more at the near invisible barriers holding her in place.

"Don't you want to be free from her," Gohan clarified, taking a few deep breaths and feeling the air working it's way into his lungs. Strange, considering he had no lungs to fill, being merely a ghost trapped within his own head. "To have fun? Like a kid should? She won't ever let you have any real fun, you know...she doesn't love you."

"I have fun..." she said, but seemed uncertain. Gohan picked up on this hesitation, "I mean, The Mistress cares about us! She's like a mother...she is!"

"She's just using you," Gohan said, "You and the other kids. Can't you see that?"

The girl, who seemed to be about five years old, (although Gohan knew she could be a thousand), didn't answer. Deciding that the time for talking was over, Gohan closed his eyes, took in a few deep breaths and tried to still his mind. After a few moments he fell into a deep state of meditation, focusing on the intake and outtake of his breathing until the world around him began and ended with the air rushing into his lungs. Curling up on her side, Gohan was vaugly aware of the child next to him sucking noisily at her thumb.

"Wha-wha-what are you talking about, Goku?" Chi Chi was standing in the kitchen of the small, rather qauint abode she shared with her family, her voice rising higher with every word that leapt from her lips, "How can Gohan be...be possessed! He has school on Monday!"

His home, Goku had been relieved to find out, had be saved from the damage inflicted by the possessed saiyan and thier family only by the location in which the property stood; far from the city limits. Spending more time with housework than watching television, Chi Chi had missed the news of the nearest city's devestation. When she saw her husband's tattered orange and blue gi and bruised, dirty features, she'd just assumed he'd been out sparring again. Par for the course for Goku.

"Listen, Chi Chi!" Goku cried, spreading his hands out in front of himself in a gesture of calmness, although he knew it was wasted on his significant other, "There was nothing we could do! They were just too strong..."

"Oh, there's something _I_ can do!" she growled, marching past him, her stare was feirce enough to shove him nearly bodily out of the way, "I'll teach that bitch to take other women's children away!"

"Listen to me, please!" he tried, "Piccolo and I are going to train for a year and locate the dragonballs so that we can fix everything!"

"A year!" she shrieked, "Gohan may be dead by then! We don't have a year! And who's going to be looking for the dragonballs while your off training!"

"Wait, Chi Chi!" Goku ran after her as she stomped outside, slamming the door open so hard it banged against the side of the house, "You have to calm down! Gohan has things under control...he..."

"Oh, don't you give me that, Mister!" Chi Chi snapped, starting up the hovercar they'd purchured a few months ago, with Goku's prize money from the last martial arts tournament, "If you hadn't insisted on continuing his training, none of this would have happened!"

"But...but, Chi Chi..."

"Now tell me where that she-bitch took my son!" she screamed at him, from the driver's side of the car, her knuckles white upon the wheel, "Or I'll just hunt her down myself!"

Goku cocked his head to one side, not liking it when his wife went off on one of her tangents. He wished she'd get out of the car. She was a horrible driver when upset. He didn't want to see any more people come to harm, not when he could help it. I can't let her go, he thought, I can't let her see what's happened...

"Chi Chi...I..." He looked away from her and for the first time since she'd know him he couldn't meet her eyes. A horrible panic seized her heart, like fingers of ice squeezing. "Goku...?" she said his name, uncertain, like a plea. Afraid of what she'd see if he looked into her eyes once more.

Oh, Kami, I can't ever tell her what I've done. She must never know. How could I do such a thing to those...they were just kids! In the back of his mind, Goku knew that it hadn't been himself that had killed... no. Slaughtered those children, but it was too difficult to make the distinction when his heart was filled with the stabbing, dull aching pain of guilt. "Chi Chi," he said, laying a hand upon one of her her own over the steering wheel, "Get out of the car."

"Goku..." she began, but stopped when she saw the look upon his face. She'd never been afraid of her own husband before, but something in his face told her she'd better do as he said. "I'm sorry," he said, in a near whisper, "I can't let you go."

Helping her from the car, he slipped his arms around her, held her as tightly as he could and not break her bones. Visions of whole families perishing at his and his friends and family's hands washed across his vision as he held his face against his wife's neck for a few precious moments. Knowing her husband like she did, Chi Chi knew that he rarely showed outward signs of physical affection of the romantic kind. And even this wasn't romantic. She felt a need within him, a need to have her and keep her safe.

"Go," she said, all the spleen gone from her voice, when she finally broke free, "Do what you have to...but, just...just come back safe...with our son...please, Goku..."

Goku Gasping, the saiyan turned from his wife and stared off into space, seeming lost for a few moments, Can you hear me?

"It's Piccolo!" He cried, for Chi Chi did not hear the namekian's mental call, it was meant only for Goku, "I can hear you fine, Piccolo..."

Meet me at Capsule Corp, Piccolo's voice rumbled inside Goku's head, tickling in a way, Bring Chi Chi.

"Chi Chi, but..." Goku glanced at her and she raised her brows in query, "No. I won't allow her to...to...Chi Chi needs to stay out of this, Piccolo!"

Just shut up and bring her, Piccolo said, irritation echoing across into Goku's head, Bulma's created a safe place for her...as well as Trunks and herself. Hurry. We haven't got time to bicker here!

With that, Piccolo broke the connection and Goku turned back to Chi Chi, shrugging, and said; "He wants me to bring you. It seems Bulma has a place that will be safe for you, her and Trunks to stay while we bring this..." he glanced at the smoke rising into the sky from the direction of Satan City, "...to a stop."

"I...I'll go pack," she said, clearly not liking the situation one bit, but she was used to being left whenever Goku and the others had to rush off to save the world. "Honey?" Goku stopped her, "Can you make me something to eat...for the road?"

"You just had dinner, Goku!"

"Please?"

"All right," she stepped away from the car and back inside the small house, her anger flashing in place of the fear she felt deep within, the all-too-familar fear that this time she would never see her husband alive again...and it would be forever as well, with no way to bring him back. She tried to ignore that feeling as she readied a suitcase for herself and Gohan, telling herself that Goku would bring him back to her, as well as a snack for Goku to take with him...which, of course, cleaned out the rest of thier stores of food for the month.

She clung to his shoulders, carried into the air, her back braced against one of his arms, his other beneath the curve of her well-shaped legs. "I think it would a good idea if, while you and Piccolo are training, that myself, Bulma and Tayven concentrate on finding the dragonballs. It will all go faster that way..." They were flying towards Capsule Corp and Goku tried his best to sheild her vision from the mess of the inner city they sped past by staying as high into the clouds as possible. She'd seen enough chaos since the years they'd been married and would see even more once they arrived at the ruins that used to be the Capsule Corp location. Although, Goku knew, they could always rebuild the buildings that had been destroyed.

"I don't know...That does sound like a good idea, Chi Chi," Goku answered after thinking for a moment, "I hope we can wish everything back to normal. But first we have to find a way to send The Mistress back to where she came from...We need to contact Krillin, Tein and the others to help..."

"The Mistress?" Chi Chi asked, nodding in response to sending word out to the other Z fighters, "Is that what she calls herself? Hmm, pretty slutty sounding if you ask me."

"She's strong, Chi Chi," Goku said, his arms tightening around her as they approached thier destination, "Promise me you won't try to go after her yourself."

After a few moments, she answered; "As long as you bring our son back, unharmed, and yourself as well, I won't have to, Goku."

"How's your face?" Bulma asked as Tayven sat upon one of the mats. The door to the panic room still stood ajar within the wall next to her. Bulma and Vegeta had slept across the room. Vegeta, having awoken hours before, was doing something outside. Tayven absently stroked her sore cheek with one hand. The area around the skin from her jaw to the corner of her right eye was bruised an ugly purple and yellow and it hurt to talk, even though she'd been trying to shove the pain of it to the back of her mind for the most part. She knew there were more important things to worry about than a little physical discomfort. Instead of waiting for an answer, Bulma opened up a backpack laying against the wall, something Tayven hadn't seen before.

Tayven waited, watching as the woman, clad in a pair of light pink shorts, white blouse and sandals, finally located what she had been seeking within the contents of the pack. Withdrawing an amber-hued medicine bottle, Bulma shook out a small red and white capsule, Tayven expected her to toss it across the floor and watch as it exploded into something three times it's size. However, when she just handed it to her, Tayven just stared at it in confusion. "What's this?"

"Pain reliever and antibiotic," Bulma explained, "One of my own creations. One of my only forays into the alchemy of pharmesuticals. Father had been complaining of muscle aches and infections of the bladder." she went on, and Tayven saw her face sadden with worry. She wanted to tell her that he parents would be all right, but Bulma went on before she say anything; "I did some research and after awhile, came up with the pill you now hold in your hand. Take it. It will help."

"Is...is this the only one?" Tayven asked, hesitant to swallow medicine that Bulma's elderly father might need. Bulma shook her head and the bottle at the same time, "There's lot's more where that came from. I was able to save as much as possibe from the lab. Capsule Corp sells them over the counter at the stores...at least...they used to...before..."

"Yeah," Tayven said, cringing, popping the pill into her mouth and using her tongue to shove it near the back of her throat, she dry-swallowed it, "I know."

A sudden noise outside startled them both. "Did you hear that?" Tayven asked, at which Bulma ran to the window, glancing out. "Vegeta?"

"What is it?" Tayven asked her, rising to look out of the thick glass windows as well, "Hey, it's green bean and numbskull!" she cried, though with far less venom and contempt than she would have displayed a week ago. Bulma gave her a sidelong glance and punched the buttons that would unseal the door to the gravity room, allowing herself and her guest outside.


End file.
